Determining how evolution shapes the molecular diversity of neurons in the brain

The evolution of neuropeptides has helped to generate a diverse set of sub-functional

neuronal populations and brain circuits. However, we do not fully understand how

these neuropeptide groups have evolved functionally, and how changes in the

diversity of neuronal populations impacts behavioral variation. We have recently

identified several neuronal subtypes in cavefish that exhibit variation in comparison to

surface fish and are now utilizing CRISPR Cas-9 gene editing to ask how variation in these

neuronal subtypes relate to behavioral evolution in cavefish, and more importantly, how

those changes relate to neuronal evolution in the vertebrate brain.