![]() ![]() doi: 10.1098/ the best July Fishbrain coupon codes in 2023 to save money on your next purchase online or in-store. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Published June 24 2015. Expression change in Angiopoietin-1 underlies change in relative brain size in fish. University College London press release Publication For further information, please contact the cited source. Note: Material may have been edited for length and content. The team now plans to study the age-specific genetic architecture of both brain structure and function based on new artificial selection experiments in the guppy. This presents us with an exciting opportunity to investigate the role of Ang-1 across different vertebrates.” Professor Mank added: “We don’t yet know if Ang-1 is important in human brain development – it isn’t on the list of genes typically studied in relation to human brain size – but as it plays a role in forming new blood vessels in humans, there may be a connection as large brains need a bigger blood supply, particularly during growth and for many brain functions. Future studies will aim to investigate the role of Ang-1 and possibly other genes in the formation of differently sized brains in developing embryos”. The protein encoded by Ang-1 is known to play an important role in growing new blood vessels and forming new brain cells in mice, which may indicate an important role of Ang-1 in brain growth of other animals, even in humans, say the scientists behind the study.ĭr Niclas Kolm, Stockholm University, said: “Other genes may be involved in brain growth in young, developing fish but no other genes were found to vary in their expression in adult fish other than Ang-1. Given the complexity of the brain, we expected that the genetics would be very intricate, but this suggests that changes in brain size are underpinned by relatively simple genetic mechanisms.” Professor Judith Mank, UCL Biosciences, said: “We were surprised to see that only a single gene was up-regulated in the large-brained guppies. ![]() Further experiments in zebrafish by collaborator Professor Pertti Panula at Helsinki University confirmed that Ang-1 is a driver for brain size. There was a 10% difference in brain size between the large and small-brain guppies and from the genetic analysis, Ang-1 was identified as the only gene expressed at different levels in each replicate population. Populations of guppies selected for either large or small brains, with associated differences in intelligence, were used for the first step in the study which was a complete genome analysis of differently expressed genes. Ang-1 could play an important role in the brain development of other vertebrates, including humans, but future research is required to establish this say the scientists involved. The study, published June 24 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, identified the underlying genetics of natural variation in brain size and cognitive abilities in fish. These trends were seen in two unrelated species of fish – guppies (Poecilia reticulata) and zebrafish ( Danio rerio) – indicating expression of Ang-1 is important for brain growth and development in fish generally. A single gene called Angiopoietin-1 ( Ang-1) drives brain size and intelligence in fish according to a new study by researchers at University College London (UCL), Stockholm University and University of Helsinki.įish with larger brains and higher intelligence had higher expression of Ang-1, and when expression levels of Ang-1 were experimentally reduced, brains shrunk. ![]()
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