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Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of morphology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1097-4687
pISSN - 0362-2525
DOI - 10.1002/jmor.21405
Subject(s) - neuropil , biology , anatomy , commissure , synapsin , neuroscience , dorsum , trunk , central nervous system , tardigrade , zoology , synaptic vesicle , ecology , vesicle , genetics , membrane
The tardigrade brain is key to understanding the evolution of the central nervous systems in Panarthropoda. In this issue of the Journal of Morphology, Gross and coauthors (pp. 1298–1312) reinvestigated the central nervous system of the heterotardigrade Echiniscus testudo using immunohistochemistry to visualize the number and position of tracts, commissures, and neuropils. They document five major synapsinimmunoreactive domains along the body: a large unitary, horseshoe‐shaped neuropil in the head and four neuropils in the trunk ganglia, supporting the hypothesis that the dorsal brain is serially homologous with the ventral trunk ganglia. The cover image shows the dorsal part of the saddle shaped brain [anti‐synapsin immunolabeling (red) and nuclear counterstain (cyan)]. The centrally located synapsin‐rich region, corresponding to the central brain neuropil.