Functional characterization of two melanocortin (MC) receptors in lamprey showing orthology to the MC1 and MC4 receptor subtypes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The melanocortin (MC) receptors have a key role in regulating body weight and pigmentation. They belong to the rhodopsin family of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The purpose of this study was to identify ancestral MC receptors in agnathan, river lamprey.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report cloning of two MC receptors from river lamprey. The lamprey receptors, designated MCa and MCb, showed orthology to the MC1 and MC4 receptor subtypes, respectively. The molecular clock analysis suggested that lamprey MC receptor genes were not duplicated recently and diverged from each other more than 400 MYR ago. Expression and pharmacological characterization showed that the lamprey MCa receptor was able to bind and be activated by both lamprey and human MSH peptides. The lamprey MCa receptor had relatively high affinity for ACTH derived peptides similarly to the fish MC receptors. We found that both of the lamprey MC receptors were expressed in skin, while the MCb receptor was also found in liver, heart and skeletal muscle.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study shows presence of MC receptors in agnathans indicating early signs of specific functions of melanocortin receptor subtypes.</p

Toward an articulation of interaction esthetics

Even though the emerging field of user experience generally acknowledges the importance of esthetic qualities in interactive products and services, there is a lack of approaches recognizing the fundamentally temporal nature of interaction esthetics. By means of interaction criticism, I introduce four concepts that begin to characterize the esthetic qualities of interaction. Pliability refers to the sense of malleability and tightly coupled interaction that makes the use of an interactive visualization captivating. Rhythm is an important characteristic of certain types of interaction, from the sub-second pacing of musical interaction to the hour-scale ebb and flow of peripheral emotional communication. Dramaturgical structure is not only a feature of online role-playing games, but plays an important role in several design genres from the most mundane to the more intellectually sophisticated. Fluency is a way to articulate the gracefulness with which we are able to handle multiple demands for our attention and action in augmented spaces

Generation of cAMP in response to α-MSH (filled circle), ACTH(1–24) (filled square), MSH-A (open circle), MSH-B (filled triangle) and ACTH (1–31) (open square) for the lamprey MCa receptors expressed in HEK-293 EBNA cells

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Functional characterization of two melanocortin (MC) receptors in lamprey showing orthology to the MC1 and MC4 receptor subtypes"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/7/101</p><p>BMC Evolutionary Biology 2007;7():101-101.</p><p>Published online 29 Jun 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1925065.</p><p></p> Untransfected cells showed no adenylate cyclase activity in response to ligands (data not shown). The cAMP assay was performed in duplicate and repeated two times with each ligand