Evolution of neuronal signalling: transmitters and receptors
Abstract
Evolution is a dynamic process during which the genome should not be regarded as a static entity. Molecular and morphological information yield insights into the evolution of species and their phylogenetic relationships, and molecular information in particular provides information into the evolution of signalling processes. Many signalling systems have their origin in primitive, even unicellular, organisms. Through time, and as organismal complexity increased, certain molecules were employed as intercellular signal molecules. In the autonomic nervous system the basic unit of chemical transmission is a ligand and its cognate receptor. The general mechanisms underlying evolution of signal molecules and their cognate receptors have their basis in the alteration of the genome. In the past this has occurred in large-scale events, represented by two or more doublings of the whole genome, or large segments of the genome, early in the deuterostome lineage, after the emergence of urochordates and cephalochordates, and before the emergence of vertebrates. These duplications were followed by extensive remodelling involving subsequent small-scale changes, ranging from point mutations to exon duplication. Concurrent with these processes was...Continue Reading
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