RT Journal Article
T1 Discovery and functional characterisation of a luqin-type neuropeptide signalling system in a deuterostome
A1 Yáñez Guerra, Luis Alfonso
A1 Delroisse, Jérôme
A1 Barreiro Iglesias, Antón
A1 Slade, Susan E.
A1 Scrivens, James H.
A1 Elphick, Maurice R.
AB Neuropeptides are diverse and evolutionarily ancient regulators of physiological/behavioural processes in animals. Here we have investigated the evolution and comparative physiology of luqin-type neuropeptide signalling, which has been characterised previously in protostomian invertebrates. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that luqin-type receptors and tachykinin-type receptors are paralogous and probably originated in a common ancestor of the Bilateria. In the deuterostomian lineage, luqin-type signalling has been lost in chordates but interestingly it has been retained in ambulacrarians. Therefore, here we characterised luqin-type signalling for the first time in an ambulacrarian – the starfish Asterias rubens (phylum Echinodermata). A luqin-like neuropeptide with a C-terminal RWamide motif (ArLQ; EEKTRFPKFMRW-NH2) was identified as the ligand for two luqin-type receptors in A. rubens, ArLQR1 and ArLQR2. Furthermore, analysis of the expression of the ArLQ precursor using mRNA in situ hybridisation revealed expression in the nervous system, digestive system and locomotory organs (tube feet) and in vitro pharmacology revealed that ArLQ causes dose-dependent relaxation of tube feet. Accordingly, previous studies have revealed that luqin-type signalling regulates feeding and locomotor activity in protostomes. In conclusion, our phylogenetic analysis combined with characterisation of luqin-type signalling in a deuterostome has provided new insights into neuropeptide evolution and function in the animal kingdom.
PB Nature Publishing Group
YR 2018
FD 2018
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/22454
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/22454
LA eng
NO Yañez-Guerra, L. A., Delroisse, J., Barreiro-Iglesias, A., Slade, S. E., Scrivens, J. H., & Elphick, M. R. (2018). Discovery and functional characterisation of a luqin-type neuropeptide signalling system in a deuterostome. Scientific reports, 8(1), 1-14.
NO The work reported in this paper was supported by grants from the BBSRC awarded to M.R.E (BB/M001644/1) and J.H.S. (BB/M001032/1). L.A.Y.G is supported by a PhD studentship awarded by the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT studentship no. 418612) and Queen Mary University of London. We are grateful to Philipp Bauknecht and Gáspár Jékely (Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany) for providing the Gα16 plasmid and the CHO-G5A cells, which were originally generated by Baubet et al. (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:7260–7265)
DS Minerva
RD 30 abr 2026