Structures enabling a rapid transmission of nerve impulses in insects

Team of neurobiologists from Münster University publish their findings on the evolution of the glial sheath and rapid transmission of signals in neurons. Microscopic view of the nervous system of an adult fruit fly. Green fluorescently-tagged channel proteins are shown on the axons of the neurons. WWU - AG Klämbt An animal's brain consists of two different types of cell: neurons, which process and transmit information, and glial cells, which support the neurons in a variety of ways. In 1871, the French anatomist Louis-Antoine Ranvier demonstrated something special about neurons in vertebrates: on the extensions of these nerve cells there are ring-shaped regions which lack a surrounding sheath - the myelin formed by glial cells. Together with the electrically insulating myelin sheath, the so-called nodes of Ranvier form a basis for electrical nerve impulses to be transferred very rapidly over longer distances. They "jump" from node to node at a speed of up to 100 metres per second.