American Zoologist articles from April 2000

American Zoologist archives from April 2000

A Tribute to Erika M. Plisetskaya: New Insights on the Function and Evolution of Gastroenteropancreatic Hormones. Introduction to the Symposium(1).
April 1, 2000... Since the discovery of the first hormone, secretin, from the gastrointestinal tract by Bayliss and Starling in 1902, our knowledge of chemical mediators produced by the gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) system has grown considerably. The emergence...

Perspective: Research Activity of Enteropancreatic and Brain/Central Nervous System Hormones Across Invertebrates and Vertebrates(1).
April 1, 2000... INTRODUCTION Insulin, glucagon, cholecystokinin, insulin-like growth factor, neuropeptide Y and somatostatin The aim here is not to describe the sources, mechanisms of action, gene regulation or function of gastroenteropancreatic...

The Agnathan Enteropancreatic Endocrine System: Phylogenetic and Ontogenetic Histories, Structure, and Function(1).
April 1, 2000... INTRODUCTION Hagfishes and lampreys are jawless fishes with direct ancestory to a once fluorishing group of Agnatha in the Palaeozoic. Among these agnathans were the ostracoderms which fossil records suggest were among the first...

Molecular Evolution of Insulin in Non-Mammalian Vertebrates(1).
April 1, 2000... STRUCTURE-ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIPS Elucidation of the three-dimensional crystal structure of pig insulin by X-ray analysis (Blundell et al., 1972) provided the first insight into the conformation of the protein and the nature of the...

Insulin Through the Ages: Phylogeny of a Growth Promoting and Metabolic Regulatory Hormone(1).
April 1, 2000... INTRODUCTION The discovery of insulin by Banting and Best in 1922 represented a milestone in clinical medicine but it has also contributed substantially to progress in the fields of molecular and comparative endocrinology. The importance...

Fish Insulin, IGF-I and IGF-II Receptors: A Phylogenetic Approach(1).
April 1, 2000... INTRODUCTION Insulin and insulin-like growth factors I and II (IGF-I and IGF-II) are peptides that belong to the same family of proteins. Insulin, IGF-I and IGF-II are structurally similar and have derived from a common ancestral...

Glucose Homeostasis in the Teleost Fish Tilapia: Insights from Brockmann Body Xenotransplantation Studies(1).
April 1, 2000... One possible treatment for insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in humans would be to transplant pancreatic islets. However, the number of potential islet graft recipients vastly exceeds the number of human cadaveric pancreatic donors....

Glucagon-like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) and the Control of Glucose Metabolism in Mammals and Teleost Fish(1).
April 1, 2000... PART I ROLE OF INSULIN, GLUCAGON AND GLP-1 IN THE CONTROL OF GLUCOSE HOMEOSTASIS IN MAMMALS The two pancreatic hormones, insulin and glucagon, are the key hormones that control glucose homeostasis in mammals. Insulin actions,...

Glucagon-like Peptide-1 in Fishes: The Liver and Beyond(1).
April 1, 2000... GLUCAGON-LIKE PEPTIDES IN VERTEBRATES The proglucagon genes of all vertebrates encode at least two glucagon-like peptides (GLPs), namely GLP-1 and GLP-2, arranged in series. Both the endocrine pancreas and the intestine are known to...

Structure-Function Relationships of the Signaling System for the Somatostatin Peptide Hormone Family(1).
April 1, 2000... INTRODUCTION In the mid to late 1960s, considerable research on the brain-pituitary relationship was underway, and much of the effort was directed at identifying the factors (hypophysiotropins) that controlled the release of...

Evolution of the Cholecystokinin and Gastrin Peptides and Receptors(1).
April 1, 2000... INTRODUCTION Analysis of the evolution of peptide hormone families is a common goal of research in comparative endocrinology. Ideally, understanding the evolutionary changes in the structure of the peptides and their receptors can lead...

The Effects of NPY and Insulin on Food Intake Regulation in Fish(1).
April 1, 2000... INTRODUCTION Neuropeptide Y (NPY), a member of the pancreatic polypeptide (PP) superfamily, was discovered in 1982 by Tatemoto et al. (Tatemoto et al., 1982). A few years later Andrews et al. (1985) found the first piscine member of the...

The Hippos: Natural History and Conservation.(Review)
April 1, 2000... The Hippos: Natural History and Conservation. S. K. ELTRINGHAM. T & A D Poyser Ltd., 1999, 184 pp., 8 plates. The Hippos is a very straight forward account of the biology, ecology and conservation of an incredible group of animals that is...