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Electric fish generate electric organ discharges for predation, defense, navigation and sexual communication. Our current knowledge of modern neuroscience was historically built on past neurophysiological, biochemical and molecular studies of the electric organ components and functions in the early 1900's. We have recently published the sequence of the genome of the electric eel, Electrophorus Electricus, and the transcriptomes of the muscle and electric organs of five other electric fish. Comparative transcriptomics reveals that evolution has sculpted these electric organ cells, the electrocytes, from muscle cell precursors, using a common "molecular toolbox" of transcription factors and signaling pathways. In my talk I will discuss the implications of understanding electrocytes biology at a genomic level and how it provides insight into strategies for treating human neurological diseases that are being implemented in stem cell models of neurological diseases in our laboratory.
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