Reichert H, Boyan G
Institute of Zoology, University of Basel, Switzerland.
Trends Neurosci. 1997 Jun;20(6):258-64. doi: 10.1016/s0166-2236(96)01034-x.
Understanding the cellular, molecular and genetic mechanisms involved in building the brain remains one of the most challenging problems of neurobiology. In this article, we review recent work on the developmental mechanisms that generate the embryonic brain in insects. We compare some of the early developmental events that occur in the insect brain with those that operate during brain development in vertebrates and find that numerous parallels are present at both the cellular and the molecular levels. Thus, the roles of glial cells in prefiguring axon pathways, the function of pioneer neurons in establishing axon pathways, and the formation of a primary axon scaffolding are features of embryonic brain development in both insects and vertebrates. Moreover, at the molecular genetic level homologous regulatory genes control morphogenesis, regionalization and patterning during embryonic brain development in both insects and vertebrates. This indicates that there might be universal mechanisms for brain development, and that knowledge gained from Drosophila and other insects is relevant to our understanding of brain development in other more complex organisms, including man.
了解构建大脑所涉及的细胞、分子和遗传机制仍然是神经生物学中最具挑战性的问题之一。在本文中，我们综述了有关昆虫胚胎大脑发育机制的最新研究。我们将昆虫大脑中发生的一些早期发育事件与脊椎动物大脑发育过程中的事件进行了比较，发现在细胞和分子水平上都存在许多相似之处。因此，神经胶质细胞在预设轴突通路中的作用、先驱神经元在建立轴突通路中的功能以及初级轴突支架的形成，都是昆虫和脊椎动物胚胎大脑发育的特征。此外，在分子遗传水平上，同源调控基因在昆虫和脊椎动物胚胎大脑发育过程中控制形态发生、区域化和模式形成。这表明可能存在大脑发育的通用机制，并且从果蝇和其他昆虫中获得的知识与我们对包括人类在内的其他更复杂生物体大脑发育的理解相关。
