MOLECULAR APPROACHES TO STUDY INVERTEBRATE HORMONES, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO INSECTS

The analysis of invertebrate neurohormones lagged behind that of verte brates and started efficiently with the recent increase in sensitivity of physical and biochemical methods and the introduction of molecular biological techniques. Among the about 150 invertebrate neurohormones characterized to date, some are related or even identical while other are unrelated to vertebrate neurohormones. Similarities with vertebra tes are also observed at the level of receptor structure and intracell ular signal transduction pathways.