Sea Lampreys Share Key Brain Development Processes with Humans

A groundbreaking study reveals that sea lampreys and humans utilize similar genetic tools for hindbrain development, suggesting a closer evolutionary relationship.

Researchers have discovered that sea lampreys and humans share remarkably similar molecular and genetic mechanisms for hindbrain development.
The study, published in Nature Communications, identifies retinoic acid as a common molecular cue guiding hindbrain patterning in both species.
This finding challenges previous assumptions that sea lampreys, lacking jaws, had significantly different brain development processes from jawed vertebrates.
The research provides evidence of a shared evolutionary ancestor and suggests that the process of hindbrain development is ancestral to all vertebrates.
Understanding the role of retinoic acid in hindbrain development could have implications for studying developmental disorders in humans.