“The atlas of placodal development helps to decipher their evolutionary origin”

In this talk I will present our single cell and spatial transcriptomics data, which I will place into the light of the current ideas about the placodal evolution. Neurogenic placodes are specialized embryonic ectodermal thickenings in the head that give rise to sensory neurons, sensory receptor and glial cell, and endocrine tissues. They, together with the neural crest, form the basis of the vertebrate cranial sensory and neurosecretory systems. Placodes are unique to vertebrates and represent a major evolutionary innovation that allowed the elaboration of the vertebrate „new head“ – the complex sensory apparatus and associated ganglia that support the information flows necessary for effective predation and movement. They may have evolved from ancestral epidermal sensory cell fields present in protochordates (like tunicates or amphioxus).