Lampreys are the stuff of nightmares, complete with long, slimy bodies; circular mouths filled with teeth; and parasitic tendencies. But lampreys are also vertebrates, which means they have backbones and share a common ancestor with humans — and new research is revealing that we have more in common with these slippery bloodsuckers than scientists previously thought.
For the last 150 years, scientists assumed that lampreys lacked a jaw because they were missing a structure known as the neural crest. This group of stem cells is unique to vertebrates, and in the womb or the egg, it develops into a wide array of structures. These structures include both jaws and the sympathetic nervous system, which controls our involuntary fight-or-flight response that kicks on in dangerous or stressful situations.
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over."One of the things I love about science is that you often make discoveries by accident," Marianne Bronner, a developmental biologist at Caltech and co-author of the study, told Live Science. Instead, the work started as a search for similar cells that were precursors to the more complex neural crest seen in jawed vertebrates.
When the scientists looked closer, they confirmed that these structures were indeed nerves using RNA sequencing; RNA is a cousin of DNA that helps cells make proteins, in addition to serving other functions. The team also found that the cells make a precursor enzyme for noradrenaline, a key chemical messenger that helps control the fight-or-flight response.Lampreys were previously assumed to react to danger by relying solely on pheromones given off by other lampreys.