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Updated: May 21, 2026

Multi-Faceted Mass Spectrometric Investigation of Neuropeptides in Callinectes sapidus
Published on: May 31, 2022
Mini-review: the evolution of neuropeptide signaling
Cornelis J P Grimmelikhuijzen1, Frank Hauser
1Center for Functional and Comparative Insect Genomics, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. cgrimmelikhuijzen@bio.ku.dk
Abstract:
Neuropeptides and their G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have an early evolutionary origin and are already abundant in basal animals with primitive nervous systems such as cnidarians (Hydra, jellyfishes, corals, and sea anemones). Most animals emerging after the Cnidaria belong to two evolutionary lineages, the Protostomia (to which the majority of invertebrates belong) and Deuterostomia (to which some minor groups of invertebrates, and all vertebrates belong). These two lineages split about 700 million years (Myr) ago. Many mammalian neuropeptide GPCRs have orthologues in the Protostomia and this is also true for some of the mammalian neuropeptides. Examples are oxytocin/vasopressin, GnRH, gastrin/CCK, and neuropeptide Y and their GPCRs. These results implicate that protostomes (for example insects and nematodes) can be used as models to study the biology of neuropeptide signaling.
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