In our new preprint we characterise neuropeptide signalling in the cnidarian #Nematostella.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.03.547448v1
Daniel Thiel and Luis Yanez-Guerra screened 64 neuropeptides against 161 G-protein coupled receptors (#GPCR) and found activating peptide ligands for 31 receptors.
#cnidaria #neuropeptide #evolution #neuroscience
By phylogenetic reconstruction, Daniel Thiel and Luis Yanez could show that #cnidarian #neuropeptide receptors diversified independent from #GPCRs in bilateria. This parallel #evolution and expansion confirms that cnidarians do not represent the ancestral state in neuronal signalling (as implied by terms like 'pre-bilaterian') any more than bilaterians.
#receptor #evolution #neuroscience #phylogeny
Previously, only one #GPCR with a ligand was known in #cnidaria, the receptor for the #Clytia Maturation-Inducing-Hormone. This receptor was found by Gonzalo Quiroga Artigas and Philipp Bauknecht in our lab, in a collaboration with Evelyn Houliston.
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000614
#cnidaria #neuropeptide #evolution #neuroscience
The 31 new deorphanized #neuropeptide #GPCRs from #Nematostella and the #phylogenetic trees also allowed us to predict the ligand for many receptors across #cnidarians. We hope that cnidarian researchers will functionally characterising these e.g. by #CRISPR, as the Houliston lab has done for the MIH receptor.
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000614
#evolution #neuroscience
In collaboration with Alison Cole and Ulrich Technau we also mapped the peptidergic #connectome of #Nematostella, by linking peptide-expressing to receptor-expressing cells.
In #Cnidaria, tissues are extensively connected via #neuropeptide signalling.
#neuroscience