Journal
CHRONOBIOLOGY INTERNATIONAL
Volume 23, Issue 1-2, Pages 5-20Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/07420520500545839
Keywords
pineal; evolution; melatonin; retina; AANAT; vertebrates
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Funding
- EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT [ZIAHD008837] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH &HUMAN DEVELOPMENT [Z01HD008837] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- Intramural NIH HHS Funding Source: Medline
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The defining feature of the pineal gland is the capacity to function as a melatonin factory that operates on a greater than or similar to 24 h schedule, reflecting the unique synthetic capacities of the pinealocyte. Melatonin synthesis is typically elevated at night and serves to provide the organism with a signal of nighttime. Melatonin levels can be viewed as hands of the clock. Issues relating to the evolutionary events leading up to the immergence of this system have not received significant attention. When did melatonin synthesis appear in the evolutionary line leading to vertebrates? When did a distinct pineal gland first appear? What were the forces driving this evolutionary trend? As more knowledge has grown about the pinealocyte and the relationship it has to retinal photoreceptors, it has become possible to generate a plausible hypothesis to explain how the pineal gland and the melatonin rhythm evolved. At the heart of the hypothesis is the melatonin rhythm enzyme arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT). The advances supporting the hypothesis will be reviewed here and expanded beyond the original foundation; the hypothesis and its implications will be addressed.
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