The language in the article is a bit overhyped. There are multiple examples of gradients being involved in pattern formation. It's just that electrical potentials are a bit of a newer area of study.
There's the chemical gradient based on WNT signaling in fruitfly development, the SHH (sonic hedgehog) chemical gradient in limb pattern formation and body planning asymmetry. There's even auxin signaling in plant development.
Heck, one of Alan Turing's (yes, THAT Turing) most famous papers from the 50s described reaction-diffusion mechanisms for pattern formation.
Basically for evolution to invent some kind of reproducible pattern of something, you need to start with a gradient of something and tie that to gene transcription.
In the fruit fly example it's a chemical trigger that reaches the nucleus via wnt signaling. In the flatworm example, it's a membrane polarization gradient that drives the gradient rather than a chemical one.
I'd imagine the patterns you can create from electrical depolarization are simpler than the ones you can get from chemicals interacting as you lose many of the interesting interactions you get from reaction-diffusion
There's the chemical gradient based on WNT signaling in fruitfly development, the SHH (sonic hedgehog) chemical gradient in limb pattern formation and body planning asymmetry. There's even auxin signaling in plant development.
Heck, one of Alan Turing's (yes, THAT Turing) most famous papers from the 50s described reaction-diffusion mechanisms for pattern formation.
Basically for evolution to invent some kind of reproducible pattern of something, you need to start with a gradient of something and tie that to gene transcription.
In the fruit fly example it's a chemical trigger that reaches the nucleus via wnt signaling. In the flatworm example, it's a membrane polarization gradient that drives the gradient rather than a chemical one.
I'd imagine the patterns you can create from electrical depolarization are simpler than the ones you can get from chemicals interacting as you lose many of the interesting interactions you get from reaction-diffusion