•To reveal how the neocortex emerged during evolution we need to understand the evolution of the development of the pallium.•The developmental trajectories of cortical cells are fundamental to ...understand evolutionary changes and homologies.•Subtle variations from early brain development accounted for the diversification of vertebrate pallia and neocortical origin.
Charles Darwin stated, “community in embryonic structure reveals community of descent”. Thus, to understand how the neocortex emerged during mammalian evolution we need to understand the evolution of the development of the pallium, the source of the neocortex. In this article, we review the variations in the development of the pallium that enabled the production of the six-layered neocortex. We propose that an accumulation of subtle modifications from very early brain development accounted for the diversification of vertebrate pallia and the origin of the neocortex. Initially, faint differences of expression of secretable morphogens promote a wide variety in the proportions and organization of sectors of the early pallium in different vertebrates. It prompted different sectors to host varied progenitors and distinct germinative zones. These cells and germinative compartments generate diverse neuronal populations that migrate and mix with each other through radial and tangential migrations in a taxon-specific fashion. Together, these early variations had a profound influence on neurogenetic gradients, lamination, positioning, and connectivity. Gene expression, hodology, and physiological properties of pallial neurons are important features to suggest homologies, but the origin of cells and their developmental trajectory are fundamental to understand evolutionary changes. Our review compares the development of the homologous pallial sectors in sauropsids and mammals, with a particular focus on cell lineage, in search of the key changes that led to the appearance of the mammalian neocortex.
Dust particles leaving the comet nucleus surface are entrained by the gas within the first few nuclear radius distances and are subjected to a complex hydrodynamical environment. From distances of ...about 20 nuclear radii outwards, the particles decouple from the accelerating gas and are mainly affected by solar gravity and radiation pressure for small-sized nuclei. Their motion is then a function of their so-called β parameter, which is the ratio of the radiation pressure force to gravity force, and their velocity when the gas drag vanishes. At a given observation time, the position of those particles projected on the sky plane form the coma, tail and trail structures that can be observed from ground-based or space-borne instrumentation. Monte Carlo models, based on the computer simulation of the Keplerian trajectories of a large set of dust particles, provide the best possible approach to extract the dust environment parameters from the observed scattered solar light or thermal emission. In this paper, we describe the Monte Carlo code along with some successful applications of such technique to a number of targets.
The human claustrum, a major hub of widespread neocortical connections, is a thin, bilateral sheet of gray matter located between the insular cortex and the striatum. The subplate is a largely ...transient cortical structure that contains some of the earliest generated neurons of the cerebral cortex and has important developmental functions to establish intra‐ and extracortical connections. In human and macaque some subplate cells undergo regulated cell death, but some remain as interstitial white matter cells. In mouse and rat brains a compact layer is formed, Layer 6b, and it remains underneath the cortex, adjacent to the white matter. Whether Layer 6b in rodents is homologous to primate subplate or interstitial white matter cells is still debated. Gene expression patterns, such as those of Nurr1/Nr4a2, have suggested that the rodent subplate and the persistent subplate cells in Layer 6b and the claustrum might have similar origins. Moreover, the birthdates of the claustrum and Layer 6b are similarly precocious in mice. These observations prompted our speculations on the common developmental and evolutionary origin of the claustrum and the subplate. Here we systematically compare the currently available data on cytoarchitecture, evolutionary origin, gene expression, cell types, birthdates, neurogenesis, lineage and migration, circuit connectivity, and cell death of the neurons that contribute to the claustrum and subplate. Based on their similarities and differences we propose a partially common early evolutionary origin of the cells that become claustrum and subplate, a likely scenario that is shared in these cell populations across all amniotes.
Similarities in gene expression patterns prompted our speculations on the common developmental and evolutionary origin of the claustrum and the subplate. Here we systematically compare the currently available data on cytoarchitecture, evolutionary origin, gene expression, cell types, birthdates, neurogenesis, lineage and migration, circuit connectivity, and cell death of the neurons that contribute to the claustrum and subplate. Almost all of the markers we examined that were expressed in the subplate/Layer 6b were also expressed in the claustral complex, but not all claustrum specific or enriched genes were expressed in subplate/Layer 6b, suggesting overall similarities, but also some differences. There are numerous similarities between the adult connectivity patters of Layer 6b and claustrum. In particular, both have extensive cortical connections. However, there are differences in the relative strength of their reciprocal connectivity with various other structures in the adult. Based on their similarities and differences we propose a partially common early evolutionary origin of the cells that become claustrum and subplate, a likely scenario that is shared in these cell populations across all amniotes.
The phylotypic or intermediate stages are thought to be the most evolutionary conserved stages throughout embryonic development. The contrast with divergent early and later stages derived from the ...concept of the evo-devo hourglass model. Nonetheless, this developmental constraint has been studied as a whole embryo process, not at organ level. In this review, we explore brain development to assess the existence of an equivalent brain developmental hourglass. In the specific case of vertebrates, we propose to split the brain developmental stages into: (1) Early: Neurulation, when the neural tube arises after gastrulation. (2) Intermediate: Brain patterning and segmentation, when the neuromere identities are established. (3) Late: Neurogenesis and maturation, the stages when the neurons acquire their functionality. Moreover, we extend this analysis to other chordates brain development to unravel the evolutionary origin of this evo-devo constraint.
Based on the existing literature, we hypothesise that a major conservation of the phylotypic brain might be due to the pleiotropy of the inductive regulatory networks, which are predominantly expressed at this stage. In turn, earlier stages such as neurulation are rather mechanical processes, whose regulatory networks seem to adapt to environment or maternal geometries. The later stages are also controlled by inductive regulatory networks, but their effector genes are mostly tissue-specific and functional, allowing diverse developmental programs to generate current brain diversity. Nonetheless, all stages of the hourglass are highly interconnected: divergent neurulation must have a vertebrate shared end product to reproduce the vertebrate phylotypic brain, and the boundaries and transcription factor code established during the highly conserved patterning will set the bauplan for the specialised and diversified adult brain.
The vertebrate brain is conserved at phylotypic stages, but the highly conserved mechanisms that occur during these brain mid-development stages (Inducing Regulatory Networks) are also present during other stages. Oppositely, other processes as cell interactions and functional neuronal genes are more diverse and majoritarian in early and late stages of development, respectively. These phenomena create an hourglass of transcriptomic diversity during embryonic development and evolution, with a really conserved bottleneck that set the bauplan for the adult brain around the phylotypic stage.
PCOS as the most common endocrine disorder of women in their reproductive age affects between 5-15 % of the female population. Apart from its cardinal symptoms, like irregular and anovulatory cycles, ...hyperandrogenemia and a typical ultrasound feature of the ovary, obesity, and insulin resistance are often associated with the disease. Furthermore, PCOS represents a status of chronic inflammation with permanently elevated levels of inflammatory markers including IL-6 and IL-18, TNF-α, and CRP. Inflammation, as discovered only recently, consists of two processes occurring concomitantly: active initiation, involving "classical" mediators including prostaglandins and leukotrienes, and active resolution processes based on the action of so-called specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs). These novel lipid mediator molecules derive from the essential ω3-poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) DHA and EPA and are synthesized via specific intermediates. The role and benefits of SPMs in chronic inflammatory diseases like obesity, atherosclerosis, and Diabetes mellitus has become a subject of intense research during the last years and since PCOS features several of these pathologies, this review aims at summarizing potential roles of SPMs in this disease and their putative use as novel therapeutics.
Abstract
Observational evidence shows that coronal jets can hit prominences and set them in motion. The impact leads to large-amplitude oscillations (LAOs) in the prominence. In this paper, we ...attempt to understand this process via 2.5D MHD numerical experiments. In our model, the jets are generated in a sheared magnetic arcade above a parasitic bipolar region located in one of the footpoints of the filament channel (FC) supporting the prominence. The shear is imposed at velocities not far above the observed photospheric values; this leads to a multiple reconnection process, as obtained in previous jet models. Both a fast Alfvénic perturbation and a slower supersonic front preceding a plasma jet are issued from the reconnection site; in the later phase, a more violent (eruptive) jet is produced. The perturbation and jets run along the FC; they are partially reflected at the prominence, and partially transmitted through it. This results in a pattern of counter-streaming flows along the FC, and oscillations in the prominence. The oscillations are LAOs (i.e., with amplitudes above 10 km s
−1
) in some areas of the prominence, both in the longitudinal and transverse directions. In some field lines, the impact is so strong that the prominence mass is brought out of the dip and down to the chromosphere along the FC. Two cases are studied, with respect to arcades at different heights above the parasitic bipolar region, leading to different heights for the region of the prominence perturbed by the jets. The obtained oscillation amplitudes and periods are in general agreement with the observations.
The classical view of mammalian cortical development suggests that pyramidal neurons are generated in a temporal sequence, with all radial glial cells (RGCs) contributing to both lower and upper ...neocortical layers. A recent opposing proposal suggests there is a subgroup of fate-restricted RGCs in the early neocortex, which generates only upper-layer neurons. Little is known about the existence of fate restriction of homologous progenitors in other vertebrate species. We investigated the lineage of selected Emx2⁺ vertebrate homeobox gene related toDrosophila empty spiracles(ems) RGCs in mouse neocortex and chick forebrain and found evidence for both sequential and fate-restricted programs only in mouse, indicating that these complementary populations coexist in the developing mammalian but not avian brain. Among a large population of sequentially programmed RGCs in the mouse brain, a subset of self-renewing progenitors lack neurogenic potential during the earliest phase of corticogenesis. After a considerable delay, these progenitors generate callosal upper-layer neurons and glia. On the other hand, we found no homologous delayed population in any sectors of the chick forebrain. This finding suggests that neurogenic delay of selected RGCs may be unique to mammals and possibly associated with the evolution of the corpus callosum.
In plasmon-enhanced heterogeneous catalysis, illumination accelerates reaction rates by generating hot carriers and hot surfaces in the constituent nanostructured metals. In order to understand how ...photogenerated carriers enhance the nonthermal reaction rate, the effects of photothermal heating and thermal gradients in the catalyst bed must be confidently and quantitatively characterized. This is a challenging task considering the conflating effects of light absorption, heat transport, and reaction energetics. Here, we introduce a methodology to distinguish the thermal and nonthermal contributions from plasmon-enhanced catalysts, demonstrated by illuminated rhodium nanoparticles on oxide supports to catalyze the CO2 methanation reaction. By simultaneously measuring the total reaction rate and the temperature gradient of the catalyst bed, the effective thermal reaction rate may be extracted. The residual nonthermal rate of the plasmon-enhanced reaction is found to grow with a superlinear dependence on illumination intensity, and its apparent quantum efficiency reaches ∼46% on a Rh/TiO2 catalyst at a surface temperature of 350 °C. Heat and light are shown to work synergistically in these reactions: the higher the temperature, the higher the overall nonthermal efficiency in plasmon-enhanced catalysis.
The cerebellum is a conserved structure of vertebrate brains that develops at the most anterior region of the alar rhombencephalon. All vertebrates display a cerebellum, making it one of the most ...highly conserved structures of the brain. Although it greatly varies at the morphological level, several lines of research point to strong conservation of its internal neural circuitry. To test the conservation of the cerebellar circuit, we compared the developmental history of the neurons comprising this circuit in three amniote species: mouse, chick, and gecko. We specifically researched the developmental time of generation of the main neuronal types of the cerebellar cortex. This developmental trajectory is known for the mammalian cell types but barely understood for sauropsid species. We show that the neurogenesis of the GABAergic lineage proceeds following the same chronological sequence in the three species compared: Purkinje cells are the first ones generated in the cerebellar cortex, followed by Golgi interneurons of the granule cell layer, and lately by the interneurons of the molecular layer. In the cerebellar glutamatergic lineage, we observed the same conservation of neurogenesis throughout amniotes, and the same vastly prolonged neurogenesis of granule cells, extending much further than for any other brain region. Together these data show that the cerebellar circuitry develops following a tightly conserved chronological sequence of neurogenesis, which is responsible for the preservation of the cerebellum and its function. Our data reinforce the developmental perspective of homology, whereby similarities in neurons and circuits are likely due to similarities in developmental sequence.
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