Animals use their chemosensory systems to detect and discriminate among chemical cues in the environment. Remarkable progress has recently been made in our knowledge of the molecular and cellular basis of chemosensory perception in insects, based largely on studies in the vinegar fly...

Evolutionally, chemosensation is an ancient but yet enigmatic sense. All organisms ranging from the simplest unicellular form to the most advanced multicellular creature possess the capability to detect chemicals in the surroundings. Conversely, all living things emit some forms of smells,...

Color vision is conventionally defined as the ability of animals to reliably discriminate among objects and lights based solely on differences in their spectral properties. Although the nature of color vision varies widely in different animals, a large majority of all vertebrate species...

Since healthy aging remains one of the ideals of modern society, both, the identification of the underlying molecular mechanisms and interventions regarding the aging process are of considerable interest. Among the mechanisms currently being considered, the sirtuin family of histone...

Plants produce a wide array of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which have multiple functions as internal plant hormones (e.g., ethylene, methyl jasmonate and methyl salicylate), in communication with conspecific and heterospecific plants and in communication with organisms of second...

Four different mechanisms have evolved in eubacteria to comply with changes in the environmental temperature. The underlying genetic mechanisms regulate gene expression at transcriptional, translational and posttranslational level. The high temperature response (HTR) is a reaction on increases...

Animals and plants have a complex and effective immune system that protect them from invading microorganisms. The mechanisms of immunity are evolutionarily selected throughout host‑pathogen interaction to be tolerant to self‑antigens and to recognize nonself molecular patterns. Plants and...

Throughout evolution, hominids have developed greater capacity to think about themselves in abstract and symbolic ways. This process has reached its apex in humans with the construction of a concept of self as a distinct entity with a personal history. This chapter provides a review of recent...

Sociability consists of behaviors that bring animals together and those that keep animals apart. Remarkably, while the neural circuitry that regulates these two “faces” of sociability differ from one another, two neurohormones, oxytocin (Oxt) and vasopressin (Avp), have been consistently...

Animals can use the direction of the magnetic field as a compass and the intensity of the magnetic field as a component of the navigational ‘map’. Two fundamentally different mechanisms of magnetoreception have been discussed: (1) light‑dependent reactions in specialized photopigments...

This chapter provides a short review of the mechanisms used by electroreceptive fish to discriminate self‑ from nonself‑generated signals. Electroreception is used by animals to detect objects of electric impedance different from the water, to detect natural electrogenic sources and to...

Eusocial species, animals which live in colonies with a reproductive division of labor, typically have closed societies, in which colony members are allowed entry and nonmembers, including animals of the same species, are excluded. This implies an ability to discriminate colony members...

Multiple senses, including hearing, touch and osmotic regulation, require the ability to convert force into an electrical signal: A process called mechanotransduction. Mechanotransduction occurs through specialized proteins that open an ion channel pore in response to a mechanical stimulus....

Consciousness, ranging from the primary, or perceptual, level to high levels that include a sense of self, can be identified in various organisms by a set of hallmarks that include behavioral, neural and phenomenal and/or informational. Behavioral hallmarks include those that indicate high...

Sensory organs provide key, and in many cases species‑specific, information that allows animals to effectively forage, find mates and avoid hazards. The primary sensors for the vertebrate senses of vision, taste and smell are G‑protein‑coupled receptors (GPCRs) expressed by sensory...

Cell recognition requires interactions through molecules located on cell surface. The insect homolog of Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (Dscam) manifests huge molecular diversity in its extracellular domain. High‑affinity Dscam‑Dscam interactions only occur between isoforms that carry...

In the course of evolution, the strong and unremitting selective pressure on sensory performance has driven the acuity of sensory organs to its physical limits. As a consequence, the study of primary sensory processes illustrates impressively how far a physiological function can be improved,...

Sexual reproduction is generally thought to be more costly than asexual reproduction. However, it does have the advantage of accelerating rates of adaptation through processes such as recombination and positive selection. Comparative studies of the human and nonhuman primate genomes have...

We review the molecular basis of auditory development and evolution. We propose that the auditory periphery (basilar papilla\organ of Corti) evolved by transforming a newly created and redundant vestibular (gravistatic) endorgan into a sensory epithelium that could respond to sound instead of...