Department of Entomology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119234, Russia.
Sci Rep. 2023 Mar 15;13(1):4320. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-31529-4.
Anucleate animal cells are a peculiar evolutionary phenomenon and a useful model for studying cellular mechanisms. Anucleate neurons were recently found in one genus of miniature parasitic wasps of the family Trichogrammatidae, but it remained unclear how widespread this phenomenon is among other insects or even among different tissues of the same insect species. We studied the anatomy of miniature representatives of another parasitic wasp family (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) using array tomography and found two more species with nearly anucleate brains at the adult stage. Thus, the lysis of the cell bodies and nuclei of neurons appears to be a more widespread means of saving space during extreme miniaturization, which independently evolved at least twice during miniaturization in different groups of insects. These results are important for understanding the evolution of the brain during miniaturization and open new areas of studying the functioning of anucleate neurons.
无核动物细胞是一种特殊的进化现象，也是研究细胞机制的有用模型。最近在一类微小寄生蜂科（Trichogrammatidae）中发现了无核神经元，但这种现象在其他昆虫中甚至在同一昆虫物种的不同组织中分布有多广泛仍不清楚。我们使用阵列断层扫描技术研究了另一类寄生蜂（膜翅目：Mymaridae）的微小代表的解剖结构，发现另外两个物种在成虫阶段具有几乎无核的大脑。因此，神经元细胞体和细胞核的裂解似乎是在极度微型化过程中节省空间的更为普遍的手段，这种手段在不同昆虫群体的微型化过程中至少独立进化了两次。这些结果对于理解微型化过程中大脑的进化很重要，并为研究无核神经元的功能开辟了新的领域。
