About the Project
The evolution of the nervous system is one of the most controversial problems in Biology (Pani et al., 2012; Holland et al., 2013; Martín-Durán et al., 2018; Arendt, 2018; Martín-Durán and Hejnol, 2019). While it is clear that any evolutionary scenarios require the integration of phylogenetic, fossil and molecular data, the interpretation of these different lines of evidence are often in conflict (Northcutt, 2012).
For example, molecular data indicate that several genes involved in the patterning of the nervous system are evolutionarily conserved (e.g. WNT signalling pathway, proneural genes, and brain regionalization genes) irrespectively to the nervous system morphology (e.g. Arendt et al., 2016; Bridi et al., 2020; Lowe et al., 2003; Pani et al., 2012). This indicates that conserved gene expression cannot be used to infer ancestral morphologies. To further complicate the problem, the nervous system usually decays before it can be fossilized, making it difficult to reconstruct the exact conformation of the nervous system in extinct species (Purnell et al., 2018 and refences within).
As a consequence, several questions concerning the evolution of the nervous system are still open. For example, what was the morphology of the nervous system in the urbilaterian ancestor? Did a centralized nervous system evolve once or multiple times?
This project will answer these questions by investigating the evolution of the nervous system at different levels (from cells to morphology) and using tools from computation and molecular biology. Ultimately, the results of this project will clarify the evolution of nervous system morphology and neuronal diversity in metazoans.
Academic entry requirements:
- Applicants must have or expect to obtain a first class or upper second class BSc and/or M-level degree (or an equivalent overseas qualification) in a relevant subject.
- University of Leicester English language requirements apply as necessary.
Informal enquiries/Contact details:
- Roberto Feuda - [Email Address Removed]
- Sarah Gabbott - [Email Address Removed]
For general enquiries please email [Email Address Removed]
How to apply:
Please read carefully the application advice under the How to Apply section at https://le.ac.uk/study/research-degrees/funded-opportunities/centa-phd-studentships before submitting your application.
Eligibility
Applicants who meet or are expected to meet the academic entry requirements can apply.
To be eligible for a full (Home) award a student must have no restrictions on how long they can stay in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the studentship.
If you do not meet the criteria for UK Fees you will need to fund the difference between UK and International fees for the duration of your studies. A limited number of top up studentships to fund the fee difference may become available but are not guaranteed.
If you are unsure of your fee status please email [Email Address Removed] and include a copy of your passport and any immigration permission you may hold.
References
Arendt, D. 2018. Animal Evolution: Convergent Nerve Cords? Current Biology. 28(5), pp.R225–R227.
Arendt, D., Bertucci, P.Y., Achim, K. and Musser, J.M. 2019. Evolution of neuronal types and families. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 56, pp.144–152.
Hejnol, A. and Rentzsch, F. 2015. Neural nets. Current Biology. 25, pp.R782–R786.
Holland, L.Z., Carvalho, J.E., Escriva, H., Laudet, V., Schubert, M., Shimeld, S.M. and Yu, J.-K. 2013. Evolution of bilaterian central nervous systems: a single origin? EvoDevo. 4, p.27.
Lowe, C.J., Wu, M., Salic, A., Evans, L., Lander, E., Stange-Thomann, N., Gruber, C.E., Gerhart, J. and Kirschner, M. 2003. Anteroposterior patterning in hemichordates and the origins of the chordate nervous system. Cell. 113(7), pp.853–865.
Martín-Durán, J.M. and Hejnol, A. 2019. A developmental perspective on the evolution of the nervous system. Developmental Biology.
Martín-Durán, J.M., Pang, K., Børve, A., Lê, H.S., Furu, A., Cannon, J.T., Jondelius, U. and Hejnol, A. 2018. Convergent evolution of bilaterian nerve cords. Nature. 553(7686), pp.45–50.
Northcutt, R.G. 2012. Evolution of centralized nervous systems: Two schools of evolutionary thought. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109(Supplement 1), pp.10626–10633.
Pani, A.M., Mullarkey, E.E., Aronowicz, J., Assimacopoulos, S., Grove, E.A. and Lowe, C.J. 2012. Ancient deuterostome origins of vertebrate brain signalling centres. Nature. 483(7389), pp.289–294.
Purnell, M.A., Donoghue, P.J.C., Gabbott, S.E., McNamara, M.E., Murdock, D.J.E. and Sansom, R.S. 2018. Experimental analysis of soft-tissue fossilization: opening the black box. Palaeontology. 61(3), pp.317–323.
Schmidt-Rhaesa, A., Harzsch, S. and Purschke, G. 2016. Structure & evolution of invertebrate nervous systems First edition. Oxford ; Oxford University Press.
Sebé-Pedrós, A., Chomsky, E., Pang, K., Lara-Astiaso, D., Gaiti, F., Mukamel, Z., Amit, I., Hejnol, A., Degnan, B.M. and Tanay, A. 2018. Early metazoan cell type diversity and the evolution of multicellular gene regulation. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2(7), pp.1176–1188.
Sebé-Pedrós, A., Saudemont, B., Chomsky, E., Plessier, F., Mailhé, M.-P., Renno, J., Loe-Mie, Y., Lifshitz, A., Mukamel, Z., Schmutz, S., Novault, S., Steinmetz, P.R.H., Spitz, F., Tanay, A. and Marlow, H. 2018. Cnidarian Cell Type Diversity and Regulation Revealed by Whole-Organism Single-Cell RNA-Seq. Cell. 173(6), pp.1520-1534.e20.
Tarashansky, A.J., Musser, J.M., Khariton, M., Li, P., Arendt, D., Quake, S.R. and Wang, B. 2021. Mapping single-cell atlases throughout Metazoa unravels cell type evolution. eLife. 10, p.e66747.