Collaborative Research: Origin and Evolutionary Divergence of the Pancrustacean Brain

合作研究：泛甲壳动物大脑的起源和进化分歧

• 批准号: 2121935
• 负责人: Gabriella Wolff
• 金额: $ 67万
• 依托单位: Case Western Reserve University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-02-01 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2121935&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Origin; Evolutionary; Divergence

It is still unknown when brains first appeared during the early history of life. The ways in which major brain parts that are structurally distinctive have changed over evolutionary time are also poorly understood. These knowledge gaps are partly due to the fact that fossil brains are rare and have been difficult to study. This project features scientists from three collaborating laboratories who will pool their resources to identify a set of invertebrate brain centers that mediate learning and memory. Structural and functional similarities and differences among these areas will be established across modern insect and crustacean species. The major question this research is answering is whether these brain centers share common genetic and computational attributes due to the brain?s fundamental organization being inherited by the descendants from a common ancestor; or, because brains that have arisen independently in different invertebrate groups are not able to perform certain functions unless brain areas that give them these same abilities have also arisen independently. These questions will be answered by precisely measuring the brain structures in fossilized invertebrate animals and comparing their basic arrangements with modern counterparts. The broader impact of this research will be to identify invertebrate proxies of the learning-and-memory brain centers found in vertebrate animals alive today, including humans. Identification of such proxies will inform us about how brains have evolved, and will contribute to a broader understanding of how memory centers are organized. The results will impact theories of, and research on, neural networks and artificial intelligence, and at the same time the scientists carrying out this research will develop novel strategies for identifying genealogical correspondence of brain structures across a very broad range of species. Brains analyzed for this research will be digitally reconstructed in 3D and uploaded to an open-source database for education and research purposes. The research will also provide advanced neuroscience structural analysis and genomics training to students from diverse backgrounds.The neuronal organization and circuit properties of insect mushroom bodies are well known, as are their functional properties for learning and memory. While the existence of mushroom-body-like centers exist across arthropods, it is not known whether these phenotypically or genotypically correspond to the centers in insects. The planned research will identify mushroom body-like centers across a broad range of species, analyze their discrete neural arrangements, circuit organization, and molecular attributes. These comparisons will identify the species within and outside Arthropoda that possess functional and morphological correspondences in these structures. Transcriptomics will address whether phenotypically-corresponding centers share common genomic attributes, and whether there are unique genetic networks that define arthropod mushroom bodies or whether these networks differentiate mushroom bodies in different groups of arthropods such as in insects and crustaceans. The identification of broad phenotypic and genotypic homology of these centers across a broad phyletic spectrum would suggest an ancient origin of these learning and memory centers. Equally intriguing would be results suggesting convergent evolution of learning and memory centers across taxa.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在生命的早期历史中，大脑最早是什么时候出现的，目前还不得而知。随着进化时间的推移，大脑结构独特的主要部分发生变化的方式也鲜为人知。这些知识差距的部分原因是，化石大脑很少见，而且一直很难研究。该项目以来自三个合作实验室的科学家为特色，他们将汇集他们的资源，以确定一组调节学习和记忆的无脊椎动物大脑中心。将在现代昆虫和甲壳类物种中确定这些区域在结构和功能上的相似和差异。这项研究正在回答的主要问题是，这些大脑中心是否因为大脑而共享共同的遗传和计算属性？S的基本组织是由共同祖先的后代继承的；或者是因为独立出现在不同无脊椎动物群体中的大脑不能执行某些功能，除非赋予它们相同能力的大脑区域也独立出现。通过精确测量无脊椎动物化石的大脑结构，并将它们的基本结构与现代同类动物进行比较，这些问题将得到解答。这项研究的更广泛影响将是识别在今天活着的脊椎动物(包括人类)中发现的学习和记忆大脑中心的无脊椎动物代用品。识别这样的代用品将告诉我们大脑是如何进化的，并将有助于更广泛地了解记忆中心是如何组织的。这一结果将影响神经网络和人工智能的理论和研究，同时，开展这项研究的科学家将开发新的策略，以确定非常广泛的物种之间大脑结构的谱系对应。为这项研究分析的大脑将以3D形式进行数字重建，并上传到用于教育和研究目的的开源数据库。这项研究还将为来自不同背景的学生提供高级神经科学结构分析和基因组学培训。昆虫蘑菇体的神经元组织和电路特性以及它们对学习和记忆的功能特性是众所周知的。虽然节肢动物中存在蘑菇体中心，但目前尚不清楚这些中心是否与昆虫的这些中心相对应。这项计划中的研究将识别广泛物种中的蘑菇体中心，分析它们离散的神经排列、回路组织和分子属性。这些比较将确定节肢动物内外的物种，这些物种在这些结构中具有功能和形态上的对应。转录组学将研究表型对应的中心是否共享共同的基因组属性，是否存在定义节肢动物蘑菇体的独特遗传网络，或者这些网络是否区分不同节肢动物群体中的蘑菇体，如昆虫和甲壳类动物。在广泛的系统谱系中鉴定这些中心的广泛表型和基因同源性将表明这些学习和记忆中心是一个古老的起源。同样耐人寻味的是，结果表明学习和记忆中心在不同类别之间的趋同发展。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。