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Reptiles: A New Model for Brain Evo‐Devo Research
Author(s) -
Nomura Tadashi,
Kawaguchi Masahumi,
Ono Katsuhiko,
Murakami Yasunori
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of experimental zoology part b: molecular and developmental evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-5015
pISSN - 1552-5007
DOI - 10.1002/jez.b.22484
Subject(s) - biology , amniote , vertebrate , cerebrum , evolutionary biology , evolutionary developmental biology , organism , repertoire , morphogenesis , neuroscience , central nervous system , paleontology , genetics , gene , physics , acoustics
Vertebrate brains exhibit vast amounts of anatomical diversity. In particular, the elaborate and complex nervous system of amniotes is correlated with the size of their behavioral repertoire. However, the evolutionary mechanisms underlying species‐specific brain morphogenesis remain elusive. In this review we introduce reptiles as a new model organism for understanding brain evolution. These animal groups inherited ancestral traits of brain architectures. We will describe several unique aspects of the reptilian nervous system with a special focus on the telencephalon, and discuss the genetic mechanisms underlying reptile‐specific brain morphology. The establishment of experimental evo‐devo approaches to studying reptiles will help to shed light on the origin of the amniote brains. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol.) 320B:57–73, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.