Editor: Akhmetova Aigerim
Author: Akhmetova Aigerim
In 1986, Sydney Brenner and his collaborators succeeded in creating the first map of the nervous system of the C. elegans worm. The work brought the biologist the Nobel Prize. Caenorhabditis elegans is a round worm, about 1 mm long. This type of nematode worm is involved in many studies as it differs from competitors in that its nervous system is very simple. Females have only 302 neurons, while males have 385.
The latest advances in this direction are the creation of a multicolor transgene called NeuroPAL (neuronal polychromatic atlas of landmarks). Thanks to NeuroPAL, a clear picture of the activation in the brain of all metabotropic receptors for acetylcholine, GABA and glutamate is emerging, mapping this communication network. Second, the fate of cells caused by transcription factor mutations is revealed. Third, the activity of the whole brain is recorded in response to attractive and repulsive chemosensory signals.
As one of the microbiologists studying this issue expressed his opinion: "Structure is always central to biology." It is much easier to have an idea about the human body by understanding the structure of DNA, proteins, central nervous system, using the example of primitive creatures like worms, snails, etc.
Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)31682-2?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867420316822%3Fshowall%3Dtrue back-bib1
