title: Global map of oxytocin/vasopressin-like neuropeptide signalling in insects.
abstract: Oxytocin and vasopressin mediate a range of physiological functions that are important for osmoregulation, reproduction, social behaviour, memory and learning. The origin of this signalling system is thought to date back ~600 million years. Oxytocin/vasopressin-like peptides have been identified in several invertebrate species and they appear to be functionally related across the entire animal kingdom. There is little information available about the biology of this peptide G protein-coupled receptor signalling system in insects. Recently over 200 insect genome/transcriptome datasets were released allowing investigation of the molecular structure and phylogenetic distribution of the insect oxytocin/vasopressin orthologue - inotocin peptides and their receptors. The signalling system is present in early arthropods and representatives of some early-diverging lineages. However, Trichoptera, Lepidoptera, Siphonaptera, Mecoptera and Diptera, lack the presence of inotocin genes, which suggests the peptide-receptor system was probably lost in their common ancestor ~280 million-years-ago. In addition we detected several losses of the inotocin signalling system in Hemiptera (white flies, scale insects and aphids), and the complete absence in spiders (Chelicerata). This unique insight into evolutionarily patterns and sequence diversity of neuroendocrine hormones will provide opportunities to elucidate the physiology of the inotocin signalling system in one of the largest group of animals.
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Vienna, 1090, Austria.|The University of Queensland, School of Biomedical Sciences, St Lucia, 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Zita
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liutkeviciute
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland, School of Biomedical Sciences, St Lucia, 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koehbach
authors.affiliation: University of Vienna, CUBE-Division of Computational Systems Biology, Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science, Vienna, 1090, Austria.|Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eder
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Vienna, 1090, Austria.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gil-Mansilla
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Vienna, 1090, Austria.|The University of Queensland, School of Biomedical Sciences, St Lucia, 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Christian W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Gruber
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000074748:Holometabola / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D007313:Insecta / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013112:Spiders / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014667:Vasopressins / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D009479:Neuropeptides; D011498:Protein Precursors; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled; D014667:Vasopressins; D010121:Oxytocin