The functional diversification of somatosensory neuron repertoires across Mammalia
The striking diversity of mammalian body forms and surfaces, lifestyles, and habitats prompts the question of how each species' somatosensory neuron repertoire accommodates such diversity. The visual and olfactory systems diversify by gaining and losing sensor/receptor genes and corresponding sensory cell types. Using multiomic single-cell analysis of dorsal root ganglia neurons from thirteen…
The diversity of mammalian bodies, surfaces, lifestyles and habitats sparks the inquiry into how each species' somatosensory neuron repertoire can adapt to such variation. While the visual and olfactory systems expand and contract by incorporating and expelling sensor/receptor genes, along with their respective sensory cells, mammals instead construct unique, purpose-built somatosensory neuron repertoires from a set of widely shared neuron types, known as orthotypes.
This adaptation occurs in several ways: the quantity of each orthotype varies according to specific bodily characteristics, like the density of hair follicles, allowing for the performance of species-specific behaviors; the sensor/receptor functionality is rearranged across species, enabling diverse orthotypes to respond to different stimuli; and, within each orthotype, distinct subtypes, or paratypes, are formed, which are specialized for their respective species.
Consequently, the mammalian somatosensory system exhibits a multitude of changes to the fundamental orthotypes, allowing the species to thrive in a variety of environments, lifestyles and body forms.
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