A study published online on April 19, 2017 in PLOS Biology provides information that substantially changes the prevailing idea about the brain formation process in vertebrates and sheds some light on how it might have evolved. The open-access article is titled “Molecular Regionalization of the Developing Amphioxus Neural Tube Challenges Major Partitions of the Vertebrate Brain.” The findings show that the interpretation maintained hitherto regarding the principal regions formed at the beginning of vertebrate brain development is not correct. This research was led jointly by the researchers José Luis Ferran and Luis Puelles of the Department of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology organism, albeit very close to us in evolutionary terms, therefore it gives us some insights as to what our ancestors might have been like. Hence, by comparing the territories of the modern vertebrate brain to that of amphioxus, we analyzed what might have occurred to lead them to multiply and how such a complex structure was formed in the course of our evolution,” explained the lecturer of the Department of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology of the University of Murcia (UMU) José Luis Ferrán, PhD, one of the researchers.Login Or Register To Read Full Story