This review focuses on neuropeptides and peptide hormones, the largest and most diverse
class of neuroactive substances, known in Drosophila and other animals to play roles in …

During sleep, animals do not eat, reproduce or forage. Sleeping animals are vulnerable to
predation. Yet, the persistence of sleep despite evolutionary pressures, and the deleterious …

A hallmark of metazoan evolution is the emergence of genomic mechanisms that implement
cell-type-specific functions. However, the evolution of metazoan cell types and their …

Transmitter signalling is the universal chemical language of any nervous system, but little is
known about its early evolution. Here, we summarize data about the distribution and …

Ctenophores are gelatinous marine animals famous for locomotion by ciliary combs. Due to
the uncertainties of the phylogenetic placement of ctenophores and the absence of some …

Glutamate (Glu) is the primary excitatory transmitter in the mammalian brain. But, we know
little about the evolutionary history of this adaptation, including the selection of l-glutamate …

In nervous systems, there are two main modes of transmission for the propagation of activity
between cells. Synaptic transmission relies on close contact at chemical or electrical …

Neuropeptides are a diverse class of signaling molecules in metazoans. They occur in all
animals with a nervous system and also in neuron-less placozoans. However, their origin …

The assembly of the neuronal and other major cell type programs occurred early in animal
evolution. We can reconstruct this process by studying non-bilaterians like placozoans …

The evolutionary origins of neurons remain unknown. Although recent genome data of
extant early-branching animals have shown that neural genes existed in the common …