N M Sherwood

..In similar studies on GHRH-PACAP, gene knockdown resulted in a smaller brain and eyes, but a normal-appearing heart. The evidence supports a role for the three neuropeptides in early development...

..The evidence suggests PACAP is important for brain development in zebrafish and is required for normal reproduction, but not for body mass or food intake in mice maintained near thermoneutrality...

..In addition, PACAP regulates metabolism and the cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems, although the physiological event(s) that coordinates PACAP responses remains to be identified...

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..Starlings can be added now to the growing list of submammalian species that express multiple forms of GnRH in their brains...

..We conclude that differential regulation of GnRH occurs in embryos, ovary and testis compared to brain in salmonids and that more than one form of GnRH is expressed in the salmonid gonad...

..The temporal and spatial expression pattern of the ghrh-pacap1 transcript suggests that these hormones may modulate patterning during development...

..The duplicated trout genes provide a model to study a critical gene whose product controls reproduction in all vertebrates...

..This assertion is based on the present demonstration and work by others showing that chicken I and II GnRH-like peptides are in turtle and alligator, chicken I is in snake, and chicken II is in lizard...

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..Other neuroendocrine components that have been annotated in the genome are a multitude of receptors, which are available for cloning, expression and functional studies...

..The early expression of transcripts for PACAP and its receptors by 0.5-6 hpf make both PACAP1 and PACAP2 candidates for factors that influence brain development...

..These experiments suggest that GnRH loss-of-function affects early brain and eye formation during development...

..Glycogen in the liver was reduced. These results suggest PACAP is a critical hormonal regulator of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism...

..We conclude that the primate brain contains mGnRH and a cGnRH-II-like molecule, although the function of the latter is unknown...

..We showed previously that these two neuropeptides were encoded in the same cDNA in fish, but the present evidence in chicken suggests a gene duplication in stem mammals...

..The lack of the salmon form of GnRH and the presence of a unique GnRH form constitute another example of the considerable evolutionary variation that has occurred in the catfish family compared with other teleosts...

..Therefore, PACAP and GHRH have widespread, overlapping target sites suggesting a coordinated role for these hormones in evolution...

..Our evidence that zebrafish PHI is more potent than human PHM in activating the human VPAC2R (EC(50)=7.4x10(-9) M) supports our suggestion that the VPAC2R and PHIR shared a common ancestral receptor...

..In summary, we have confirmed that withdrawal of PACAP from early chick neuroblasts causes cell cycle exit and apoptosis, and identified proteins involved in proliferation, exit, apoptosis, and possibly differentiation...

..This is the first report using RIA, HPLC, and immunocytochemistry to show that protochordates have GnRH-like material. The results suggest that GnRH may have been present at the transition between the invertebrates and vertebrates...

..These results demonstrate that PACAP is not required for the regulation of food intake yet is necessary to maintain normal energy homeostasis, likely playing a role in central cold-sensing mechanisms...

..We conclude that fish duplicates in the secretin superfamily are a rich, mostly unexplored area for endocrine research...

..This is the first report to suggest that distinct invertebrate and vertebrate GnRHRs are present simultaneously in a basal chordate, amphioxus...

..intestinalis genome were all transcribed into messenger RNA, but only three of the Ciona GnRH receptors were biologically active in our assays. The Ciona GnRH receptors almost exclusively activated the cAMP pathway...

..We identify continuous expression of PACAP in the brain and eye and stage-specific expression in the gonads and thymus. The complex splicing of PACAP transcripts may regulate the tissue-and stage-specific expression...

..These results suggest that either the sGnRH transcripts in the gonads are not translated into protein or, if translated, the protein is rapidly released, resulting in gonadal content below 1 fM per fish...

..In terms of gonadal morphology, adult gene trap-Gnrhr null mice demonstrate a complete cessation of reproduction and serve as an important model for understanding GnRH/GnRHR physiology...

..These data provide insight into the structural evolution of the GnRH peptides and their genes and show a functional role for GnRH in tunicate spawning...

..This suggests that exon skipping in GHRH-PACAP transcripts may be an important mechanism for regulating the ratio of PACAP to GHRH peptides...

..We conclude that chick neuroblasts require production of PACAP to inhibit apoptosis and maintain full proliferative activity during early brain development...

..We conclude that under prolonged but mild cold stress, lack of PACAP results in inadequate heat production due to insufficient norepinephrine stimulation of brown adipose tissue...

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..These data provide the first evidence of a physiological role for PACAP during cerebellar development...