A Strange Genetic Link Between Humans And Sea Anemones Was Just Confirmed

There is a link between the development of hearing and sensory development in sea anemones.

The pou-iv gene is found in the sea anemone and plays a crucial role in the animal's sense of touch.

The last common ancestor of humans and sea anemones was around 748 to 604 million years ago.

The discovery of the genes role in the sea anemone suggests that it was present in their common ancestors and that it played a role in sensory development.

It is exciting because it opened a new field of research into how mechanosensation develops and functions in a sea anemone, and it also shows us that the building blocks of our sense of hearing have ancient evolutionary roots.

Hair cells are sensory cells in the ear. These cells have a bundle of cells called stereocilia that sense sound and mechanical stimuli. In mammals, pou-iv is needed for the development of hair cells, and mice that have had pou-iv knocked out are not able to hear.

The anemone has similar hair cells on its tentacles that are used for movement.

A team of researchers led by a Biologist from the University of Arkansas wanted to figure out what the gene was doing. If you want to observe what happens, you can use the CRISPR -Cas9 gene-editing tool. This is what the team did.

They injected a cocktail containing Cas9 into fertilized sea anemone eggs to cut out the pou-iv gene, and studied the developing embryos, as well as the grown, mutated anemones.

The wild-type control anemones showed no response to touch, while the Mutant animals showed no response at all. The anemones couldn't sense mechanical stimuli through their hair cells without pou-iv.

Polycystin 1 is required for the sense of fluid flow in the kidneys in mammals and is found in the anemones. Sea anemones have a useful ability to sense fluid flow.

The researchers said that the results show that pou-iv played a role in the development of mechanosensory cells in the common ancestor between Cnidaria and Bilateria. To trace the gene back even further, you will need data from other phyla.

The researchers wrote in their paper that the role for pou-iv in mechanoreceptor development is broadly conserved across Cnidaria and Bilateria.

Comparative data from placozoans and sponges is needed to understand how early the role of pou-iv emerged in animal evolution.

The research has been published.