Abstract
The physiology and behaviour of humans and other animals are regulated by a huge variety of neuropeptide signaling molecules. Consequently, discovering the evolutionary and functional relationships of neuropeptides and their receptors has proven challenging. However, important advances have been made recently using animals that occupy key positions in animal phylogeny (e.g. echinoderms) as model systems. The aim here is to build upon this successful strategy by investigating the structure and synteny of neuropeptide and receptor genes in echinoderm genomes to predict novel neuropeptide-receptor partnerships, which will then be tested experimentally using cell-based bioassays, molecular neuroanatomy and in vitro/in vivo pharmacology.
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