Comparative Molecular Neurobiology

✍ Scribed by André Adoutte, Hervé Philippe (auth.), Dr. Yves Pichon (eds.)

• Publisher: Birkhäuser Basel
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 444
• Series: EXS 63
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

It is generally accepted that all living organisms present on earth derive from one single primordial cell born several billion years ago. One important step in the evolution occurred some 1. 5 billion years ago with the transition from small procaryote cells with relatively simple internal structures such as bacteria to larger and more compleX: eucaryotic cells such as those found in higher animals and plants. Large membrane proteins which enable the cells to communicate appeared early in evolution, and it is believed that the nerve membrane receptors and ionic channels which are observed today in both invertebrate and vertebrate species derive from a common ancestor. Basically, the three identified superfamilies, 1) ionotropic receptors (i. e. receptors containing an integral ionic channel), 2) metabotropic receptors (receptors coupled to G­ proteins) and 3) voltage-dependent ionic channels (Na+, K + and Ca2+ channels) were already well differentiated when vertebrates separated from invertebrate species. The large number of subtypes which are observed in each superfamily may be of more recent evolutionary origin. To understand how this happened, the best approach was to compare the sequences and the properties of the receptors and ionic channels in species sufficiently distant in the evolutionary tree. In the present volume, many of the best specialists in the field of comparative molecular neurobiology, several of them working on vertebrate and invertebrate species, have accepted to report their most recent findings.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-ix
The major lines of metazoan evolution: Summary of traditional evidence and lessons from ribosomal RNA sequence analysis....Pages 1-30
Heterologous expression of the membrane proteins that control cellular excitability....Pages 31-47
Molluscan ligand-gated ion-channel receptors....Pages 48-64
Acetylcholine receptor molecules of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans ....Pages 65-80
Acetylcholine receptor/channel molecules of insects....Pages 81-97
Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in invertebrates: Comparisons with homologous receptors from vertebrates....Pages 98-145
Pharmacology of the GABA receptor of insect central neurones in culture: A patch-clamp study....Pages 146-171
GABA Receptor molecules of insects....Pages 172-209
Cloning of a putative GABA A receptor from cyclodiene-resistant Drosophila : A case study in the use of insecticide-resistant mutants to isolate neuroreceptors....Pages 210-223
Molecular biology of excitatory amino acid receptors: Subtypes and subunits....Pages 224-233
Molecular analysis of Drosophila glutamate receptors....Pages 234-240
Channels formed by M2 peptides of a putative glutamate receptor subunit of locust....Pages 241-249
Single channel properties at the synaptic site....Pages 250-265
Structural and functional conservation of serotonin receptors throughout evolution....Pages 266-278
The wide range of actions of the FMRFamide-related peptides and the biological importance of peptidergic messengers....Pages 279-285
Molecular studies on insect octopamine receptors....Pages 286-296
Bioamine receptors: Evolutionary and functional variations of a structural leitmotiv....Pages 297-337
Molecular basis of K + channel inactivation gating....Pages 338-351
Potassium conductance and potassium channels in a primitive insect: The cockroach Periplaneta americana ....Pages 352-365
Ionic channels in cultured Drosophila neurons....Pages 366-389
The electrophysiological pharmacology of neurotransmitter receptors on locust neuronal somata....Pages 390-413
Modulation of insect neurone properties....Pages 414-424
Back Matter....Pages 425-436

✦ Subjects

Science, general