title: Evolution of thermal response properties in a cold-activated TRP channel.
abstract: Animals sense changes in ambient temperature irrespective of whether core body temperature is internally maintained (homeotherms) or subject to environmental variation (poikilotherms). Here we show that a cold-sensitive ion channel, TRPM8, displays dramatically different thermal activation ranges in frogs versus mammals or birds, consistent with variations in these species' cutaneous and core body temperatures. Thus, somatosensory receptors are not static through evolution, but show functional diversity reflecting the characteristics of an organism's ecological niche.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Benjamin R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: Yaron M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Sigal
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Julius
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura / Q000502:physiology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003080:Cold Temperature; D015640:Ion Channel Gating; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D050052:TRPC Cation Channels / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D013697:Thermosensing / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D050052:TRPC Cation Channels