Brain, Gut and Skin Peptide Hormones in Lower Vertebrates

Understanding of peptide hormone evolution rests primarily onstructural information, either direct or inferred. We summarizestudies of fishes and amphibians to provide initial informationwithin the vertebrate lineage for selected peptides which exhibitvarying structural heterogeneity. For these peptides, thyrotropin-releasinghormone, somatostatin, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormoneand cholecystokinin related peptides manifest increasing diversification.Members of these peptide families are found distributed amonga variety of tissues (e.g., brain, gut, skin, retina, sympatheticnervous system), yet the number of genes encoding for individualtypes of peptides is presently uncertain. We emphasize the needfor additional structural information, for a more thorough anddiverse taxonomic investigation within the vertebrate lineage,and for specification of those genetic elements which ultimatelydetermine evolutionary opportunities for peptide evolution.