Cell types are the basic building blocks of multicellular organisms and are extensively
diversified in animals. Despite recent advances in characterizing cell types, classification …

Over 600 million years ago, animals evolved from a unicellular or colonial organism whose
cell (s) captured bacteria with a collar complex, a flagellum surrounded by a microvillar …

A hallmark of metazoan evolution is the emergence of genomic mechanisms that implement
cell-type-specific functions. However, the evolution of metazoan cell types and their …

Animal tissues are made up of multiple cell types that are increasingly well-characterized,
yet our understanding of the core principles that govern tissue organization is still …

During sleep, animals do not eat, reproduce or forage. Sleeping animals are vulnerable to
predation. Yet, the persistence of sleep despite evolutionary pressures, and the deleterious …

Transmitter signalling is the universal chemical language of any nervous system, but little is
known about its early evolution. Here, we summarize data about the distribution and …

Animal evolution is often presented as a march toward complexity, with different living
animal groups each representing grades of organization that arose through the progressive …

Glutamate (Glu) is the primary excitatory transmitter in the mammalian brain. But, we know
little about the evolutionary history of this adaptation, including the selection of l-glutamate …

In nervous systems, there are two main modes of transmission for the propagation of activity
between cells. Synaptic transmission relies on close contact at chemical or electrical …

Neuropeptides are by far the largest and most diverse group of signaling molecules in
multicellular organisms. They are ancient molecules important in regulating a multitude of …