Profiling cellular diversity in sponges informs animal cell type and nervous system evolution
2021
Hernández-Plaza, Ana | Musser, Jacob M. | Schippers, Klaske J. | Nickel, Michael | Mizzon, Giulia | Kohn, Andrea B. | Pape, Constantin | Ronchi, Paolo | Papadopoulos, Nikolaos | Tarashansky, Alexander J. | Hammel, Jörg U. | Wolf, Florian | Liang, Cong | Cantalapiedra, Carlos P | Achim, Kaia | Schieber, Nicole L. | Pan, Leslie | Ruperti, Fabian | Francis, Warren R. | Vargas, Sergio | Kling, Svenja | Renkert, Maike | Polikarpov, Maxim | Bourenkov, Gleb | Feuda, Roberto | Gaspar, Imre | Burkhardt, Pawel | Wang, Bo | Bork, Peer | Beck, Martin | Schneider, Thomas R. | Kreshuk, Anna | Wörheide, Gert | Huerta-Cepas, Jaime | Moroz, Leonid L. | Arendt, Detlev | Huerta-Cepas, Jaime [0000-0003-4195-5025]
The evolutionary origin of metazoan cell types such as neurons and muscles is not known. Using whole-body single-cell RNA sequencing in a sponge, an animal without nervous system and musculature, we identified 18 distinct cell types. These include nitric oxide-sensitive contractile pinacocytes, amoeboid phagocytes, and secretory neuroid cells that reside in close contact with digestive choanocytes that express scaffolding and receptor proteins. Visualizing neuroid cells by correlative x-ray and electron microscopy revealed secretory vesicles and cellular projections enwrapping choanocyte microvilli and cilia. Our data show a communication system that is organized around sponge digestive chambers, using conserved modules that became incorporated into the pre- and postsynapse in the nervous systems of other animals.
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