Interested in miRNAs, early animal evolution, and RNA biology? We’re recruiting a BBSRC-funded Postdoctoral Research Associate @bristolbiosci.bsky.social #Postdoc #microRNA #RNAbiology
Apply by 14 May 2026. 👉 www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find-in...

AGREE!!!!

Happy to announce that we received the HFSP to study the evolution of TRP channels! bit.ly/4uGmMQ3
This project is a collaboration between Luis Bezares from the @biodev-vlfr.bsky.social LBDV in Viellefranch and the University of Southampton. @unisouthampton.bsky.social

Dense and distributed neuropeptide network in the nerve net of Hydra vulgaris Author summary For more than a century, neuroscience has focused on connections between neurons via synapses as the main basis of brain function. In this study, we explore an additional and less under...

New paper alert.
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Collaboration with the Yuste lab. Neuropeptidergic connectome in Hydra vulgaris. The experimental deorphanisation still pending...

New HFSP Awardees 2026

Attention scientists from all over the world🙃
The 2026 #HFSPResearchGrants are out! 🥳
117 scientists from 31 countries will pursue bold, interdisciplinary research, from #neuroscience to #ecology and beyond! 🧪
Are you one of the new #HFSPAwardees?
🔗https://bit.ly/4uGmMQ3
#sts #HFSP

Postdoc Opening! 🚨
Thrilled to (belatedly!) share that I’ve received @hfspo.bsky.social grant in collaboration with @KatherinaPetrou "Plant-like solar tracking in a photosymbiotic animal."
We are hiring a Postdoc to join the team
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social!
Apply👇
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQO766/r...

Evolution of neurohormone function revealed by actions of kisspeptin-type peptides in an echinoderm - BMC Biology Background The neurohormone kisspeptin regulates reproductive maturation and function in mammals by stimulating hypothalamic production and release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone. However, little i...

KISSPEPTIN FUNCTION REVEALED IN AN INVERTEBRATE - Congrats to @tabindaislam.bsky.social whose first PhD paper was published today in BMC Biology. Thank you to co-authors @luisguerra.bsky.social & Dean Semmens and to our funders - @leverhulme.ac.uk BBSRC & IsDB.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

is an ancient eukaryotic complex. in humans it sets neuronal resting excitability; in fungi it mediates stress-evoked Ca²⁺ entry. Its widespread distribution in eukaryotes shows this complex originated early in eukaryotes, and was later co-opted to regulate neuronal resting excitability in animals.

Also from the Senatore's lab. It was shown that the NALCN/Cch1 ‘channelosome’, a pore subunit with dedicated partners (FAM155/Mid1 ± UNC79/UNC80) 1/2

rupress.org/jgp/article/...

Evolutionarily speaking, the most interesting part for me, is the demonstration that polyamine block in glutamate receptors is an ancestral regulatory mechanism that predates bilaterians, showing that key aspects of synaptic physiology arose early in animal evolution (prebilaterian).

Evolution of iGluR ligand specificity, polyamine regulation, and ion selectivity inferred from a placozoan epsilon receptor - Communications Biology The authors generated a species-guided phylogeny of eukaryotic iGluRs, alongside a focused analysis of iGluR homologues from the early-branching invertebrate phylum Placozoa.

The latest papers from the Senatore Lab are very interesting and I would recomend to read them to anyone interested in the evolution of the nervous system. First:
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Tons of ctenos in this season!!!

I would say is really good. The only part I did not like is that they have a "personality test" thing that is very dubious and pseudo-scientific. Otherwise I think is good!. The place is beautiful and the food is good. I would say that I mostly recommend it :)

Check out our latest work on the evolution of animal genome regulation out today in @nature.com. Nicely summarized below by @ianakim.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is a major output from our ERC-StG project Evocellmap @erc.europa.eu at @crg.eu

Ya habia leido este paper I me parecio fantastico. Me da mucho gusto que tambien seas mexicano, excelente trabajo!

This paper is the result of funding from the BBSRC that I received in 2022 for my independent research. Then, since 2023, I’ve led my own lab focused on receptor deorphanisation and evolution of the nervous system, If you're interested in large-scale GPCR testing or collaborations, get in touch!

He was my postdoc supervisor :D. Hehehe I obtained funding for this project in 2022 that allowed me to start my own laboratory :). Thanks for sharing

Functional and phylogenetic analysis of placozoan GPCRs reveal the prebilaterian origin of monoaminergic signalling Monoamines are biologically active compounds crucial for neurotransmission and various physiological processes. They include neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin, which regulate m...

🧪Then, we identified that the receptors that are activated by monoamines in placozoans are homologous to bilaterian receptors! #Science

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We also identified receptors that mediate these effects in placozoans. By using large-scale deorphanisation, we found that these monoamines are the most active for certain placozoan receptors. Phylogenies demonstrate that these receptors are orthologs of bilaterian melatonin receptors!!

🧪🧪⚗️
In the most recent work of my laboratory, we demonstrate that placozoans can respond to endogenous monoamines. Here you can look at the effects of tyramine, which increases the speed of placozoans. Tryptamine and Phenethylamine also have effects.
#Science #Placozoans #Monoamines

Can you add me please? scholar.google.com/citations?us...

Hi @erynmcfarlane.bsky.social I am an evolutionary biologist working in the evolution of the nervous system, can you add me to the list?
Here is my google scholar and ORCID
orcid.org/0000-0002-25...

scholar.google.com/citations?us...

Then, we demonstrate that these receptors are homologous to bilaterian receptors, particularly human melatonin receptors. Demonstrating that the monoamine system is more ancestral than originally thought. We resolved this problem thanks to the use of pharmacology #Melatonin #GPCRs #Pharmacology

Functional and phylogenetic analysis of placozoan GPCRs reveal the prebilaterian origin of monoaminergic signalling. Monoamines are biologically active compounds crucial for neurotransmission and various physiological processes. They include neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin, which regulate mood, movement, and sleep in humans. In ecdysozoans, monoamines such as tyramine are important for modulating locomotion, learning, and feeding. The monoaminergic signalling system has been considered a bilaterian innovation, with conflicting evidence supporting its existence in earlier branching, non-bilaterian animals. Here, we challenge the bilaterian origin hypothesis by combining large-scale receptor deorphanisation with phylogenetic analyses to identify monoamine receptors from the placozoan Trichoplax adhaerens. We demonstrate that these receptors are homologous to known bilaterian GPCRs, and behavioural assays demonstrate that monoamines like tyramine and tryptamine affect the speed of locomotion and body shape of this animal, respectively. These responses, together with the presence of biosynthetic enzymes for these molecules, reveal that monoaminergic signalling is both active and endogenous in placozoans. Our findings provide compelling evidence for a prebilaterian origin of monoaminergic systems, reshaping our understanding of early nervous system evolution. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Preprint alert!. In the most recent work of my laboratory, we demonstrate that placozoans are able to respond to monoamines, furthermore, we experimentally characterise the receptors responsible for these effects. #Science #Placozoans #Neurotransmitters #Monoamines

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

NALCN/Cch1 channelosome subunits originated in early eukaryotes and are fully conserved in animals, fungi, and apusomonads The sodium leak channel NALCN, a key regulator of neuronal excitability, associates with three ancillary subunits that are critical for its function: an extracellular subunit called FAM155, and two cytoplasmic subunits called UNC79 and UNC80. Interestingly, NALCN and FAM155 have orthologous phylogenetic relationships with the fungal calcium channel Cch1 and its extracellular subunit Mid1, however, UNC79 and UNC80 have not been reported outside of animals. In this study, we leveraged expanded gene sequence data available for eukaryotes to re-examine the evolutionary origins of NALCN and Cch1 channel subunits. Our analysis corroborates the direct phylogenetic relationship between NALCN and Cch1 and identifies a larger clade of related channels in additional eukaryotic taxa. We also identify homologues of FAM155/Mid1 in Cryptista algae, and UNC79 and UNC80 homologues in numerous non-metazoan eukaryotes including basidiomycete and mucoromycete fungi, and the microbial eukaryotic taxa Apusomonadida, Malawimonadida, and Discoba. Furthermore, we find that most major animal lineages, except ctenophores, possess a full complement of NALCN subunits. Comparing structural predictions with the solved structure of the human NALCN complex supports orthologous relationships between metazoan and non-metazoan FAM155/Mid1, UNC79, and UNC80 homologues. Together, our analyses reveal unexpected diversity and ancient eukaryotic origins of NALCN/Cch1 channelosome subunits and raise interesting questions about the functional nature of this conserved channel complex within a broad, eukaryotic context. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

New preprint from the Senatore lab! Ancestral origin of the NALCN/Cch1 channelosome! Happy to have contributed!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Global analysis of ligand-gated ion channel conservation across Platyhelminthes Ligand-gated ion channels (LGICs) are critical for neurotransmission, mediating responses to neurotransmitters and hormones, and influencing diverse p…

A short paper from a collaboration between my lab and a Mexican lab was published this week!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Does anyone in the UK have a plasmid containing mScarlet, mScarlet3, or mScarlet3-H? I need it for a plasmid I’m developing. Thanks!

High content of nuclei-free low-quality cells in reference single-cell atlases: a call for more stringent quality control using nuclear fraction - BMC Genomics The advent of droplet-based single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) has dramatically increased data throughput, enabling the release of a diverse array of tissue cell atlases to the public. However, we...

Not checking nuclear markers like MALAT1 or intronic reads in your scRNA-seq data?🚨
We show their power to flag low-quality cells—even in top public datasets. It’s time to prioritize better QC for cleaner, more reliable genomics research!
Read more: bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
1/8

Can I be added please?