Related papers: Steroid Receptors and Vertebrate Evolution
There is much concern about disruption of endocrine physiology regulated by steroid hormones in humans, other terrestrial vertebrates and fish by industrial chemicals, such as bisphenol A, and pesticides, such as DDT. These…
Lampreys are jawless fish that evolved about 550 million years ago at the base of the vertebrate line. Modern lampreys contain a corticoid receptor (CR), the common ancestor of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and mineralocorticoid receptor…
The progesterone receptor (PR) mediates progesterone regulation of female reproductive physiology, as well as gene transcription in non-reproductive tissues, such as brain, bone, lung and vasculature, in both women and men. An unusual…
We report the analysis of activation by corticosteroids and progesterone of full-length mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) from elephant shark, a cartilaginous fish belonging to the oldest group of jawed vertebrates. Based on their measured…
Sex chromosomes have evolved repeatedly across the Tree of Life, yet their evolutionary fates differ strikingly. In sharp contrast to mammals and birds with degenerated, stable Y/W chromosomes, in most amphibians, teleosts, non avian…
Aldosterone, the main physiological mineralocorticoid in humans and other terrestrial vertebrates, first appears in lungfish, which are lobe-finned fish that are forerunners of terrestrial vertebrates. Aldosterone activation of the MR…
Constraints in embryonic development are thought to bias the direction of evolution by making some changes less likely, and others more likely, depending on their consequences on ontogeny. Here, we characterize the constraints acting on…
We investigated progestin and corticosteroid activation of the progesterone receptor (PR) from elephant shark (Callorhinchus milii), a cartilaginous fish belonging to the oldest group of jawed vertebrates. Comparison with human PR…
Ecdysteroid hormones are major regulators in reproduction and development of insects, including larval molts and metamorphosis. The functional ecdysone receptor is a heterodimer of ECR (NR1H1) and USP-RXR (NR2B4), which is the orthologue of…
Expansion of the neocortex is a hallmark of human evolution. However, it remains an open question what adaptive mechanisms facilitated its expansion. Here we show, using gyrencephaly index (GI) and other physiological and life-history data…
Cortisol, corticosterone and aldosterone activate full-length glucocorticoid receptor (GR) from elephant shark, a cartilaginous fish belonging to the oldest group of jawed vertebrates. Activation by aldosterone a mineralocorticoid,…
Living organisms have some common structures, chemical reactions and molecular structures. The organisms consist of cells with cell division, they have homochirality of protein and carbohydrate units, and metabolism, and genetics, and they…
Very low levels of genetic diversity have been reported in vertebrates with large genomes, notably salamanders and lungfish [1-3]. Interpreting differences in heterozygosity, which reflects genetic diversity in a population, is complicated…
In order to understand how animals evolved over time, biologists must learn how their body parts form during their development. The following is a detailed description of how one species of sea spider transforms from a hatchling to an…
Growing evidence suggests that many vertebrate lineages are evolving at significantly different rates. As a first approximation of evolutionary rates, we assessed the amount of neutral (dS) and non-neutral (dN) substitutions that have…
Thyroid hormone (TH) signalling, an evolutionary conserved pathway, is crucial for brain function and cognition throughout life, from early development to ageing. In humans, TH deficiency during pregnancy alters offspring brain development,…
Adenosine receptors are G-protein-coupled receptors involved in a wide range of physiological and pathological phenomena in most mammalian systems. All four receptors are widely expressed in the central nervous system, where they modulate…
Atlantic sea lamprey contains two corticoid receptors (CRs), CR1 and CR2, that are identical except for a four amino acid insert (Thr-Arg-Gln-Gly) in the CR1 DNA-binding domain (DBD). Steroids are stronger transcriptional activators of CR2…
Darwin introduced the concept of the "living fossil" to describe species belonging to lineages that have experienced little evolutionary change, and suggested that species in more slowly evolving lineages are more prone to extinction (1).…
An extrapolation of the genetic complexity of organisms to earlier times suggests that life began before the Earth was formed. Life may have started from systems with single heritable elements that are functionally equivalent to a…