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Neuropeptides are small protein-like molecules produced and released by various cells in the brain, including neurosecretory and other neuronal cell types. They function both as hormones, acting on distant organs, and as neuromodulators or neurotransmitters, affecting cells expressing the respective G protein-coupled receptors within the brain. Since the early days of neuroendocrinology, oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) have been the most extensively studied neuropeptides, due to both historical reasons (their early identification, isolation, and chemical synthesis) and their crucial roles in physiology and survival of animals including humans. However, they are just two of the 200–300 different neuropeptides found in the brain of every mammalian species. To better understand any neuropeptide system, it is of great importance to regard its evolutionary history. Even though it seems that the comparative neuroscience approach, which was once so fruitful, has been in decline over the past decades, we argue that it is more important than ever to reconsider it. And indeed, much has recently been learned about how neuropeptide systems evolved. In this chapter, we intend to first put the history of neuropeptide research into an evolutionary perspective. We will argue that it was a comparative evolutionary approach which facilitated major breakthroughs in the research of the best studied neuropeptides OT and AVP, and will provide a short summary of the history of OT and AVP research with some focus on the broad spectrum of model organisms that were used in this decade-long endeavor. Afterwards, we will provide an extensive review on what is known about the evolution of neuropeptidergic signaling in general. Finally, we will turn back to AVP and OT and review what is known about the phylogenetic origin and evolution of these important neuropeptides, which form highly complex interactive networks in the central nervous system that govern homeostasis as well as many behaviors essential for evolutionarily driven propagation of species.

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Evolution of Neuropeptide Signaling: From a Single Cell to Mammals

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Quirin Krabichler,
  • Valery Grinevich

摘要

Neuropeptides are small protein-like molecules produced and released by various cells in the brain, including neurosecretory and other neuronal cell types. They function both as hormones, acting on distant organs, and as neuromodulators or neurotransmitters, affecting cells expressing the respective G protein-coupled receptors within the brain. Since the early days of neuroendocrinology, oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) have been the most extensively studied neuropeptides, due to both historical reasons (their early identification, isolation, and chemical synthesis) and their crucial roles in physiology and survival of animals including humans. However, they are just two of the 200–300 different neuropeptides found in the brain of every mammalian species. To better understand any neuropeptide system, it is of great importance to regard its evolutionary history. Even though it seems that the comparative neuroscience approach, which was once so fruitful, has been in decline over the past decades, we argue that it is more important than ever to reconsider it. And indeed, much has recently been learned about how neuropeptide systems evolved. In this chapter, we intend to first put the history of neuropeptide research into an evolutionary perspective. We will argue that it was a comparative evolutionary approach which facilitated major breakthroughs in the research of the best studied neuropeptides OT and AVP, and will provide a short summary of the history of OT and AVP research with some focus on the broad spectrum of model organisms that were used in this decade-long endeavor. Afterwards, we will provide an extensive review on what is known about the evolution of neuropeptidergic signaling in general. Finally, we will turn back to AVP and OT and review what is known about the phylogenetic origin and evolution of these important neuropeptides, which form highly complex interactive networks in the central nervous system that govern homeostasis as well as many behaviors essential for evolutionarily driven propagation of species.