{"doi":"10.1038/srep03573","title":"Innexin gap junctions in nerve cells coordinate spontaneous contractile behavior in Hydra polyps","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Nerve cells and spontaneous coordinated behavior first appeared near the base of animal evolution in the common ancestor of cnidarians and bilaterians. Experiments on the cnidarian <jats:italic>Hydra</jats:italic> have demonstrated that nerve cells are essential for this behavior, although nerve cells in <jats:italic>Hydra</jats:italic> are organized in a diffuse network and do not form ganglia. Here we show that the gap junction protein innexin-2 is expressed in a small group of nerve cells in the lower body column of <jats:italic>Hydra</jats:italic> and that an anti-innexin-2 antibody binds to gap junctions in the same region. Treatment of live animals with innexin-2 antibody eliminates gap junction staining and reduces spontaneous body column contractions. We conclude that a small subset of nerve cells, connected by gap junctions and capable of synchronous firing, act as a pacemaker to coordinate the contraction of the body column in the absence of ganglia.</jats:p>","journal":"Scientific Reports","year":2014,"id":686869,"datarank":0.6190701577567639,"base_score":4.127134385045092,"endowment":4.127134385045092,"self_citation_contribution":0.6190701577567639,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6190701577567639,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":61,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1794410,"name":"Jung Shan Hwang","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":621929,"name":"Alexander Wolf","orcid":"0000-0001-8875-586X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":751252,"name":"Angelika Böttger","orcid":"0000-0003-3273-9558","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":603197,"name":"Hiroshi Shimizu","orcid":"0000-0002-4869-502X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":842145,"name":"Charles N. David","orcid":"0000-0002-9811-4043","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":11692,"name":"Takashi Gojobori","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1794409,"name":"Yasuharu Takaku","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Innexin gap junctions in nerve cells coordinate spontaneous contractile behavior in Hydra polyps","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Nerve cells and spontaneous coordinated behavior first appeared near the base of animal evolution in the common ancestor of cnidarians and bilaterians. Experiments on the cnidarian <jats:italic>Hydra</jats:italic> have demonstrated that nerve cells are essential for this behavior, although nerve cells in <jats:italic>Hydra</jats:italic> are organized in a diffuse network and do not form ganglia. Here we show that the gap junction protein innexin-2 is expressed in a small group of nerve cells in the lower body column of <jats:italic>Hydra</jats:italic> and that an anti-innexin-2 antibody binds to gap junctions in the same region. Treatment of live animals with innexin-2 antibody eliminates gap junction staining and reduces spontaneous body column contractions. We conclude that a small subset of nerve cells, connected by gap junctions and capable of synchronous firing, act as a pacemaker to coordinate the contraction of the body column in the absence of ganglia.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":4.127134385045092,"endowment":4.127134385045092,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"24394722","pmcid":"PMC3882753","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W1995908762","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":6.4709,"citation_percentile":0.95722384,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2015,"count":6},{"year":2016,"count":2},{"year":2017,"count":5},{"year":2018,"count":4},{"year":2019,"count":8},{"year":2020,"count":4},{"year":2021,"count":7},{"year":2022,"count":1},{"year":2023,"count":10},{"year":2024,"count":7},{"year":2025,"count":6},{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.nature.com/articles/srep03573.pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.nature.com/articles/srep03573.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.nature.com/articles/srep03573","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/srep03573","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24394722","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/3882753","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/33801/","host_type":""},{"url":"https://push-zb.helmholtz-muenchen.de/frontdoor.php?source_opus=30556","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10754/325397","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3882753","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3882753?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology","Connexins and lens biology","Marine Toxins and Detection Methods","Animals","Connexins","Gap Junctions","Hydra","Neurons","Synapses"],"mesh_terms":["Animals","Hydra","Neurons","Synapses","Gap Junctions","Connexins"],"keywords":["Lernaean Hydra","Gap junction","Nerve cells","Nerve net","Biology","Anatomy","Contraction (grammar)","Cell biology"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Life below water"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-18T20:42:26.426194Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}