Evolution of Potassium Channels and Nerve Networks in Cnidaria

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All animals have nervous systems – tissues formed of excitable cells that transmit and integrate information between different parts of the body. The structure and activity of nervous systems varies widely between organisms, from the relatively dispersed neural networks of the Cnidaria to the many anatomically different centralized nervous systems of the Bilateria. However, all cells of the nervous systems of all animals are electrically responsive. Ion channel proteins, both ligand-gated, which respond to neurotransmitters at the synapse and extra-synaptic modulatory signals, and voltage-gated, which respond to changes in membrane potential, modulate the membrane potential. This proposal describes a program aimed at identifying and characterizing the voltage-gated potassium channels in the cnidarian,