Comb jellies have evolved a unique take on a nervous system.
Shimmering, gelatinous comb jellies wouldn’t appear to have much to hide. But their mostly see-through bodies cloakIn the nervous systems of everything from anemones to aardvarks, electrical impulses pass between nerve cells, allowing for signals to move from one cell to the next. But the ctenophores’ cobweb of neurons, called a nerve net, is missing these distinct connection spots, or synapses.
It’s possible the bizarre tissue represents a second, independent evolutionary origin of a nervous system, say Pawel Burkhardt, a comparative neurobiologist at the University of Bergen in Norway, and colleagues. Previous genetics research had hinted at the strangeness of the ctenophore nervous system. For instance, a 2018 studywith a genetic signature that corresponded to recognizable neurons, Burkhardt says.
This 3-D reconstruction of the sea walnut’s nervous system reveals the structure of its nerve net as well as nearby structures and other nervous system components. Two kinds of nerve cells — sensory cells and mesogleal neurons exist outside the nerve net. How they interact with the nerve net is still unknown, as is the role of the mesogleal neurons. Those nerve cells exist in the animal’s gelatinous body layer and may provide nutrients or other support to the nerve net.
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