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Developmental Biology Nov 2017
Topics: Biological Evolution; Evolution, Molecular; Organogenesis; Sense Organs; Sensory Receptor Cells; Somatosensory Cortex
PubMed: 28889956
DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2017.09.007 -
Developmental Biology May 2014For both the intricate morphogenetic layout of the sensory cells in the ear and the elegantly radial arrangement of the sensory neurons in the nose, numerous signaling... (Review)
Review
For both the intricate morphogenetic layout of the sensory cells in the ear and the elegantly radial arrangement of the sensory neurons in the nose, numerous signaling molecules and genetic determinants are required in concert to generate these specialized neuronal populations that help connect us to our environment. In this review, we outline many of the proteins and pathways that play essential roles in the differentiation of otic and olfactory neurons and their integration into their non-neuronal support structures. In both cases, well-known signaling pathways together with region-specific factors transform thickened ectodermal placodes into complex sense organs containing numerous, diverse neuronal subtypes. Olfactory and otic placodes, in combination with migratory neural crest stem cells, generate highly specialized subtypes of neuronal cells that sense sound, position and movement in space, odors and pheromones throughout our lives.
Topics: Animals; Cell Differentiation; Ear, Inner; Ectoderm; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Humans; Neurogenesis; Olfactory Pathways; Sense Organs; Sensory Receptor Cells
PubMed: 24508480
DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2014.01.023 -
Journal of Comparative Physiology. A,... Mar 2021Spiders show a broad range of motions in addition to walking and running with their eight coordinated legs taking them towards their resources and away from danger. The... (Review)
Review
Spiders show a broad range of motions in addition to walking and running with their eight coordinated legs taking them towards their resources and away from danger. The usefulness of all these motions depends on the ability to control and adjust them to changing environmental conditions. A remarkable wealth of sensory receptors guarantees the necessary guidance. Many facets of such guidance have emerged from neuroethological research on the wandering spider Cupiennius salei and its allies, although sensori-motor control was not the main focus of this work. The present review may serve as a springboard for future studies aiming towards a more complete understanding of the spider's control of its different types of motion. Among the topics shortly addressed are the involvement of lyriform slit sensilla in path integration, muscle reflexes in the walking legs, the monitoring of joint movement, the neuromuscular control of body raising, the generation of vibratory courtship signals, the sensory guidance of the jump to flying prey and the triggering of spiderling dispersal behavior. Finally, the interaction of sensors on different legs in oriented turning behavior and that of the sensory systems for substrate vibration and medium flow are addressed.
Topics: Animals; Locomotion; Mechanoreceptors; Movement; Psychomotor Performance; Sense Organs; Sensilla; Sensory Receptor Cells; Spiders
PubMed: 33135112
DOI: 10.1007/s00359-020-01449-z -
Nutrients Apr 2023Vitamin K occupies a unique and often obscured place among its fellow fat-soluble vitamins. Evidence is mounting, however, that vitamin K (VK) may play an important role... (Review)
Review
Vitamin K occupies a unique and often obscured place among its fellow fat-soluble vitamins. Evidence is mounting, however, that vitamin K (VK) may play an important role in the visual system apart from the hepatic carboxylation of hemostatic-related proteins. However, to our knowledge, no review covering the topic has appeared in the medical literature. Recent studies have confirmed that matrix Gla protein (MGP), a vitamin K-dependent protein (VKDP), is essential for the regulation of intraocular pressure in mice. The PREDIMED (Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea) study, a randomized trial involving 5860 adults at risk for cardiovascular disease, demonstrated a 29% reduction in the risk of cataract surgery in participants with the highest tertile of dietary vitamin K1 (PK) intake compared with those with the lowest tertile. However, the specific requirements of the eye and visual system (EVS) for VK, and what might constitute an optimized VK status, is currently unknown and largely unexplored. It is, therefore, the intention of this narrative review to provide an introduction concerning VK and the visual system, review ocular VK biology, and provide some historical context for recent discoveries. Potential opportunities and gaps in current research efforts will be touched upon in the hope of raising awareness and encouraging continued VK-related investigations in this important and highly specialized sensory system.
Topics: Mice; Animals; Vitamin K; Vitamin K 1; Vitamins; Vitamin K Deficiency; Sense Organs; Vitamin K 2
PubMed: 37111170
DOI: 10.3390/nu15081948 -
PloS One 2019Proton conductivity is important in many natural phenomena including oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria and archaea, uncoupling membrane potentials by the...
Proton conductivity is important in many natural phenomena including oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria and archaea, uncoupling membrane potentials by the antibiotic Gramicidin, and proton actuated bioluminescence in dinoflagellate. In all of these phenomena, the conduction of protons occurs along chains of hydrogen bonds between water and hydrophilic residues. These chains of hydrogen bonds are also present in many hydrated biopolymers and macromolecule including collagen, keratin, chitosan, and various proteins such as reflectin. All of these materials are also proton conductors. Recently, our group has discovered that the jelly found in the Ampullae of Lorenzini- shark's electro-sensing organs- is the highest naturally occurring proton conducting substance. The jelly has a complex composition, but we proposed that the conductivity is due to the glycosaminoglycan keratan sulfate (KS). Here we measure the proton conductivity of hydrated keratan sulfate purified from Bovine Cornea. PdHx contacts at 0.50 ± 0.11 mS cm -1, which is consistent to that of Ampullae of Lorenzini jelly at 2 ± 1 mS cm -1. Proton conductivity, albeit with lower values, is also shared by other glycosaminoglycans with similar chemical structures including dermatan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate A, heparan sulfate, and hyaluronic acid. This observation supports the relationship between proton conductivity and the chemical structure of biopolymers.
Topics: Animals; Cattle; Cornea; Electric Conductivity; Glycosaminoglycans; In Vitro Techniques; Keratan Sulfate; Palladium; Protons; Sense Organs; Sharks
PubMed: 30849116
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202713 -
EMBO Reports Dec 2016Stem cells have the remarkable ability to undergo proliferative symmetric divisions and self-renewing asymmetric divisions. Balancing of the two modes of division... (Review)
Review
Stem cells have the remarkable ability to undergo proliferative symmetric divisions and self-renewing asymmetric divisions. Balancing of the two modes of division sustains tissue morphogenesis and homeostasis. Asymmetric divisions of Drosophila neuroblasts (NBs) and sensory organ precursor (SOP) cells served as prototypes to learn what we consider now principles of asymmetric mitoses. They also provide initial evidence supporting the notion that aberrant symmetric divisions of stem cells could correlate with malignancy. However, transferring the molecular knowledge of circuits underlying asymmetry from flies to mammals has proven more challenging than expected. Several experimental approaches have been used to define asymmetry in mammalian systems, based on daughter cell fate, unequal partitioning of determinants and niche contacts, or proliferative potential. In this review, we aim to provide a critical evaluation of the assays used to establish the stem cell mode of division, with a particular focus on the mammary gland system. In this context, we will discuss the genetic alterations that impinge on the modality of stem cell division and their role in breast cancer development.
Topics: Animals; Asymmetric Cell Division; Cell Differentiation; Cell Lineage; Drosophila; Drosophila Proteins; Humans; Mammary Glands, Human; Mice; Mitosis; Neoplasms; Neurons; Sense Organs; Stem Cell Niche; Stem Cells
PubMed: 27872203
DOI: 10.15252/embr.201643021 -
Developmental Cell Sep 2005Three current papers in Cell and in this issue of Developmental Cell highlight the role of the exocyst in recycling of membrane proteins from endosomes to the plasma... (Review)
Review
Three current papers in Cell and in this issue of Developmental Cell highlight the role of the exocyst in recycling of membrane proteins from endosomes to the plasma membrane in asymmetric cell division and polarized epithelial cells.
Topics: Animals; Cell Division; Cell Membrane; Cell Polarity; Drosophila; Endosomes; Epithelial Cells; Oocytes; Sense Organs
PubMed: 16139221
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2005.08.007 -
Journal of Neurophysiology Dec 2019Semicircular canal afferent neurons transmit information about head rotation to the brain. Mathematical models of how they do this have coevolved with concepts of how... (Review)
Review
Semicircular canal afferent neurons transmit information about head rotation to the brain. Mathematical models of how they do this have coevolved with concepts of how brains perceive the world. A 19th-century "camera" metaphor, in which sensory neurons project an image of the world captured by sense organs into the brain, gave way to a 20th-century view of sensory nerves as communication channels providing inputs to dynamical control systems. Now, in the 21st century, brains are being modeled as Bayesian observers who infer what is happening in the world given noisy, incomplete, and distorted sense data. The semicircular canals of the vestibular apparatus provide an experimentally accessible, low-dimensional system for developing and testing dynamical Bayesian generative models of sense data. In this review, we summarize advances in mathematical modeling of information transmission by semicircular canal afferent sensory neurons since the first such model was proposed nearly a century ago. Models of information transmission by vestibular afferent neurons may provide a foundation for developing realistic models of how brains perceive the world by inferring the causes of sense data.
Topics: Animals; Models, Biological; Neurons, Afferent; Semicircular Canals; Vestibule, Labyrinth
PubMed: 31693427
DOI: 10.1152/jn.00087.2019 -
BMC Biology Feb 2021Insects and other arthropods utilise external sensory structures for mechanosensory, olfactory, and gustatory reception. These sense organs have characteristic shapes...
Insects and other arthropods utilise external sensory structures for mechanosensory, olfactory, and gustatory reception. These sense organs have characteristic shapes related to their function, and in many cases are distributed in a fixed pattern so that they are identifiable individually. In Drosophila melanogaster, the identity of sense organs is regulated by specific combinations of transcription factors. In other arthropods, however, sense organ subtypes cannot be linked to the same code of gene expression. This raises the questions of how sense organ diversity has evolved and whether the principles underlying subtype identity in D. melanogaster are representative of other insects. Here, we provide evidence that such principles cannot be generalised, and suggest that sensory organ diversification followed the recruitment of sensory genes to distinct sensory organ specification mechanism. RESULTS: We analysed sense organ development in a nondipteran insect, the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, by gene expression and RNA interference studies. We show that in contrast to D. melanogaster, T. castaneum sense organs cannot be categorised based on the expression or their requirement for individual or combinations of conserved sense organ transcription factors such as cut and pox neuro, or members of the Achaete-Scute (Tc ASH, Tc asense), Atonal (Tc atonal, Tc cato, Tc amos), and neurogenin families (Tc tap). Rather, our observations support an evolutionary scenario whereby these sensory genes are required for the specification of sense organ precursors and the development and differentiation of sensory cell types in diverse external sensilla which do not fall into specific morphological and functional classes. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our findings and past research, we present an evolutionary scenario suggesting that sense organ subtype identity has evolved by recruitment of a flexible sensory gene network to the different sense organ specification processes. A dominant role of these genes in subtype identity has evolved as a secondary effect of the function of these genes in individual or subsets of sense organs, probably modulated by positional cues.
Topics: Animals; Gene Expression; Larva; RNA Interference; Sense Organs; Tribolium
PubMed: 33546687
DOI: 10.1186/s12915-021-00948-y -
WormBook : the Online Review of C.... Mar 2007The non-motile cilium, once believed to be a vestigial cellular structure, is now increasingly associated with the ability of a wide variety of cells and organisms to... (Review)
Review
The non-motile cilium, once believed to be a vestigial cellular structure, is now increasingly associated with the ability of a wide variety of cells and organisms to sense their chemical and physical environments. With its limited number of sensory cilia and diverse behavioral repertoire, C. elegans has emerged as a powerful experimental system for studying how cilia are formed, function, and ultimately modulate complex behaviors. Here, we discuss the biogenesis, distribution, structures, composition and general functions of C. elegans cilia. We also briefly highlight how C. elegans is being used to provide molecular insights into various human ciliopathies, including Polycystic Kidney Disease and Bardet-Biedl Syndrome.
Topics: Animals; Biological Transport; Caenorhabditis elegans; Cilia; Disease Models, Animal; Morphogenesis; Sense Organs
PubMed: 18050505
DOI: 10.1895/wormbook.1.126.2