NEUROPEPTIDE-F - A UBIQUITOUS INVERTEBRATE NEUROMEDIATOR

Using specific antisera, neuropeptide F (NPF)-related peptides have been identified immunocytochemically as widespread and abundant in the nervous systems of all invertebrate taxa examined so far. To date, four NPFs have been isolated and sequenced: from the cestode, Moniezia expansa and the turbellarian, Artioposthia triangulata, and from the molluscs, Helix aspersa and Aplysia californica; a related nonapeptide has been sequenced also from Loligo vulgaris. These peptides all display structural characteristics of the vertebrate NPY superfamily of peptides and appear, therefore, to represent invertebrate members of this superfamily. In this respect, invertebrate NPFs most likely represent the precursors of the vertebrate NPY superfamily. Homologies between the gene structure of human NPY and molluscan NPF (A. californica) support the view that the NPY/NPF gene is of ancient lineage. Although NPF (A. californica) has been found to inhibit the activity of the abdominal ganglia in Aplysia, its widespread expression in this mollusc would suggest multiple functions; the physiological role(s) of NPFs in other invertebrates awaits examination. The abundance and apparent ubiquitous nature of NPF-related peptides establishes them as evolutionarily-ancient molecules that likely serve important physiological functions in invertebrate neurobiology.