294 Pages 37 Color & 1 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    294 Pages 37 Color & 1 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    294 Pages 37 Color & 1 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Vertebrates possess lineage-specific characteristics. These include paired anterior sense organs and a robust, modular head skeleton built of cellular cartilage and bone. All of these structures are derived, at least partly, from an embryonic tissue unique vertebrates - the neural crest. The evolutionary history of the neural crest, and neural crest cells, has been difficult to reconstruct. This volume will use a comparative approach to survey the development of the neural crest in vertebrates, and neural crest-like cells, across the metazoa. This information will be used to reveal neural crest evolution and identify the genomic, genetic, and gene-regulatory changes that drove them.

     

    Key selling features:

  • Summarizes the data regarding neural crest cells and nerural crest derivatives
  • Uses a broad-based comparative approach
  • Suggests hypothesis that the origin of neural crest cells involved the novel co-activation of ancient metazoan gene programs in neural border cells
  • Illustrates how the emergences of neural crest made possible the diversification of vertebrate heads
  • Contents

    Editors ……………………………………………………………………………………………..vii

    Contributors...........................................................................................................................ix

    Introduction: Tribute to the Neural Crest …………………………………………………… 1

    Marianne Bronner

    Chapter 1 The Neural Crest, A Vertebrate Invention ……………………………………………… 5

    Mansour Alkobtawi and Anne H. Monsoro-Burq

    Chapter 2 The Evolution of Cellular EMT and Migration ……………………………………..… 67

    Joshua R. York, Kevin Zehnder, and David W. McCauley

    Chapter 3 The Evolution of the Neural Border and Peripheral

    Nervous System—Insights from Invertebrate Deuterostome Animals …………………………… 103

    Jr-Kai Yu and Yi-Hsien Su

    Chapter 4 The Hunt for Neural Crest in Invertebrate Chordates …………………………………... 137

    Philip B. Abitua

    Chapter 5 Elaboration of Fates in Neural Crest Lineage during Evolution ….…………………… 157

    Igor Adameyko

    Chapter 6 On the Evolution of Skeletal Cells before and after Neural Crest ……………….…… 185

    Brian F. Eames, Patsy Gomez-Picos, and David Jandzik

    Chapter 7 Neural Crest and Craniofacial Evolution of Early Vertebrates ………………………… 219

    Shigeru Kuratani

    Chapter 8 Neural Crest in Fossil Vertebrates: What, If Anything, Can We Know? …………….. 243

    Per Erik Ahlberg and Tatjana Haitina

    Chapter 9 Evolving Neural Crest Cells: Hopes for Present and Future Understanding ………… 265

    Igor Adameyko and Brian F. Eames

    Index …………………………………………………….……………………………………….......………. 275

    Biography

    Daniel Meulemans Medeiros is an associate professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  His lab uses a comparative developmental genetic approach, to better understand the evolutionary origins and diversification of the vertebrate head, a topic Dr. Medeiros has been studying for more than 16 years.  Dr. Medeiros has published over 30 original research articles and several literature reviews on vertebrate head skeleton development and evolution, focusing on neural crest-derived skeletal tissues.   Dr. Medeiros’ research program has been continuously funded by multiple major grants from the NSF and NIH.  Current projects in the Medeiros lab exploit new methods for monitoring and perturbing developmental gene expression in organisms occupying key phylogenetic nodes for understanding vertebrate evolution, including the jawless vertebrate lamprey, the vertebrate-like invertebrate chordate, amphioxus, zebrafish, and the African clawed frog.