Repeated failures to reproduce make fruit flies stressed and frustrated, which in turn makes them less resilient to other types of stress, Julia Ryvkin at Bar-Ilan University and colleagues report in PLOS Genetics.
Plants & Animals
Jan 18, 2024
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5
Researchers have built the first ever map showing how every single neuron in the nervous system of a tiny worm communicates wirelessly. This huge step forward in understanding how neurons communicate through extremely short ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 6, 2023
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6
For two people to communicate in a loud, crowded room, they need to be standing side by side. The same is often true for neurons in the brain. But the same way a cell phone allows two people to communicate clearly across ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 29, 2021
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169
Starfish feed in a bizarre way—turning their stomachs out of their mouth when they come across a tasty meal like a mussel or oyster—and then digesting their chosen prey outside of their body.
Plants & Animals
Sep 7, 2021
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110
Cockroaches are notorious for their abilities to survive and reproduce, much to humanity's chagrin. In addition to scurrying around at night, feeding on human and pet food, and generating an offensive odor, the pests can ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 9, 2020
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Cells in our nervous system, or neurons, communicate with other cells by releasing chemical messengers, which bind to receptor proteins on neighboring cells and change their activity. Neuropeptides are one type of chemical ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 14, 2020
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Citrus greening disease, also called huanglongbing (HLB), is a bacterial infection of citrus trees that results in small, misshapen and sour fruits that are unsuitable for consumption, ultimately killing the tree. Because ...
Biotechnology
Apr 28, 2020
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5
Brazilian researchers may have discovered why Africanized honeybees are so aggressive. The scientists detected higher levels of certain chemical substances in the brains of Africanized honeybees than in gentler strains of ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 15, 2018
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30
Africanized honeybees, commonly known as "killer bees," are much more aggressive than their European counterparts. Now researchers have examined neuropeptide changes that take place in Africanized honeybees' brains during ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 6, 2018
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A study of genetically diverse worms finds that the length of their backward movement is under the control of a small protein called a neuropeptide that fluctuates in response to food availability. The research, published ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 30, 2018
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Neuropeptides are small protein-like molecules used by neurons to communicate with each other. They are neuronal signaling molecules, influence the activity of the brain in specific ways and are thus involved in particular brain functions, like analgesia, reward, food intake, learning and memory.
Neuropeptides are expressed and released by neurons, and mediate or modulate neuronal communication by acting on cell surface receptors. The human genome contains about 90 genes that encode precursors of neuropeptides. At present about 100 different peptides are known to be released by different populations of neurons in the mammalian brain. Neurons use many different chemical signals to communicate information, including neurotransmitters, peptides, cannabinoids, and even some gases, like nitric oxide.
Many populations of neurons have distinctive biochemical phenotypes. For example, in one subpopulation of about 3000 neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, three anorectic peptides are co-expressed: α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH), galanin-like peptide, and cocaine-and-amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), and in another subpopulation two orexigenic peptides are co-expressed, neuropeptide Y and agouti-related peptide (AGRP). These are not the only peptides in the arcuate nucleus; β-endorphin, dynorphin, enkephalin, galanin, ghrelin, growth-hormone releasing hormone, neurotensin, neuromedin U, and somatostatin are also expressed in subpopulations of arcuate neurons. These peptides are all released centrally and act on other neurons at specific receptors. The neuropeptide Y neurons also make the classical inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA.
Invertebrates also have many neuropeptides. CCAP has several functions including regulating heart rate, allatostatin and proctolin regulate food intake and growth, bursicon controls tanning of the cuticle and corazonin has a role in cuticle pigmentation and moulting.
Peptide signals play a role in information processing that is different from that of conventional neurotransmitters, and many appear to be particularly associated with specific behaviours. For example, oxytocin and vasopressin have striking and specific effects on social behaviours, including maternal behaviour and pair bonding.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
