Question

How did stem cell niches evolve and is their location relevant to evolution?

Answer 1

Stem cells are the specialized cells that under some conditions can be induced to become cells with a specific functions such as skin,muscle or nerve cells.Stem cells has a potential to repair any damaged tissue.Most important thing that regulating the stem cells is local environment called niche which regulates the stem cells behaviour.Stem cells acts as a novel tool for evolutionary studies.Researcher Shinya Yamanaka realized that both pluripotent stem cells and any other somatic cells have their own identity because they express factors that are specific to different cell types.Induced pluripotent stem cells is used to study different species.Somatic cells from the primates were taken from biopsy Yamanaka's reprogramming factors or the technology is used to induce the cells for cellular differentiation to differentiate in different cell types of the body and the findings reveal that human neuron is different from the Chimpanzee neuron.With the knowledge of genetics,anatomy helps to understand human evolution.Two species Bonobos and Chimpanzees are compared with humans. Even though Chimpanzees share 98.7% of DNA with humans they have different behaviours and anatomy.Human brain have a different genetic expression compared to the other species.Brain size or organization are way much larger than compared to the other primates.Gene expression of three different species is studied by using isolated neurons.Human genes are highly expressed in human neurons compared to Chimpanzee neurons.Through gene ontology biological process when compared to human and chimpanzees it was found that biological process that is related to cell adhesion,locomotion and cell-cell interaction it was found that neuronal migration may be different between humans and Chimpanzees.