Evolution of ventricular myocyte electrophysiology.

ABSTRACT: The relative importance of regulatory versus structural evolution for the evolution of different biological systems is a subject of controversy. The primacy of regulatory evolution in the diversification of morphological traits has been promoted by many evolutionary developmental biologists. For physiological traits, however, the role of regulatory evolution has received less attention or has been considered to be relatively unimportant. To address this issue for electrophysiological systems, we examined the importance of regulatory and structural evolution in the evolution of the electrophysiological function of cardiac myocytes in mammals. In particular, two related phenomena were studied: the change in action potential morphology in small mammals and the scaling of action potential dura

SUBMITTER: Rosati B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2585018 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature