Timeline for Why are primary sensory cells considered neurons but muscle cells are not?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 5, 2017 at 0:32 | comment | added | Hans-Peter Stricker | Let us continue this discussion in chat. | |
| Nov 5, 2017 at 0:31 | comment | added | Bryan Krause♦ | Interesting thought, though the very important difference between convergent evolution, which is what you seem to be describing, is that cells with different fates do have access to the same genome and so can evolve together. I.e., a mesoderm-derived tissue and ectoderm-derived tissue can express some of the very same proteins; this of course isn't possible in convergent evolution. | |
| Nov 5, 2017 at 0:30 | comment | added | Hans-Peter Stricker | I'm not after "trivia" but want to understand terminology. I always believed the term "neuron" is somehow defined functionally (phenomenologically), but now I've learned it's defined genetically (developmentally). | |
| Nov 5, 2017 at 0:25 | comment | added | Hans-Peter Stricker | There seems to be a parallel to species which can have accidental phenotypical resemblances which are not backed genetically, right? (Does this observation count as "trivia"?) | |
| Nov 5, 2017 at 0:17 | comment | added | Bryan Krause♦ | "Trivia" refers to typically obscure facts that are most useful as facts rather than for some other purpose. | |
| Nov 5, 2017 at 0:15 | comment | added | Bryan Krause♦ | They are from a completely separate embryonic tissue: mesoderm, not ectoderm. That means that if you draw a diagram of cell fates, muscles and neurons are not on the same "family tree." You'd have to go back to embryonic stem cells to find cells that could eventually become either mesoderm or ectoderm. "Reacts on synaptic input" is not a defining characteristic of neurons, they can be excited by other sources as well, and lots of other non-neuronal cells also show some excitable properties; immune cells, for example, and many others. | |
| Nov 5, 2017 at 0:07 | comment | added | Hans-Peter Stricker | What do you mean by "trivia"? | |
| Nov 5, 2017 at 0:06 | comment | added | Hans-Peter Stricker | But muscle cells cannot be entirely separate, because they react on synaptic input: at least in this respect they behave like neurons. | |
| Nov 4, 2017 at 23:28 | history | answered | Bryan Krause♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |