Just to expand on what Carol said: receptor sites are present on different types of muscles (e.g., smooth, cardiac) and can directly affect their function. One simple source that reviews this for adrenergic transmitters is: http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/663adrenergic.html
Richard Restak (neurologist who wrote "The Mind" and "The Brain" which served as the basis for the PBS series) has an interesting little book titled "Receptors" that goes into more depth on the topic though it may be a little dated now (it was published in 1994; his coverage of the relevant history should be okay). -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. Restak's Chapter 10 is on good drugs/bad drugs and he starts out with nicotine which he claims is a pretty lethal compound. Plants that could produced nicotine probably had a survival advantage because nicotine could poison/kill insect predators. Indeed, nicotine used to be used as an insecticide. See the Wikipedia entry on insecticides (yadda-yadda): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insecticide ----------------------- Original Message ----------------------------- On Tue, 25 Jan 2011 06:24:31 -0800, Carol DeVolder wrote: Actually, no, you don't need a neuron to have a receptor site, although a cell membrane is probably one of the minimum requirements. I've found a bit of literature on it, and as you mentioned, dopamine (and the other catecholamines) seem to be part of the stress response in plants. Interesting, but not so much that I will dwell on it. Thanks for your response! Carol On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 2:45 PM, Steven Hall [email protected]> wrote: > > Not sure, but don't you need a neuron to have receptor sites? > Plants do have dopamine. but I don't know their purpose, it's something to > do with metabolism and protection from preditors. > > Kuklin, A. & Conger, B. Catecholamines in plants. > Journal of Plant Growth Regulation. Volume 14, Number 2, 91-97, DOI: > 10.1007/BF00203119 > Dopamine Functions as an Antiherbivore Defense in the Temperate Green Alga > Ulvaria obscura > Kathryn L. Van Alstyne, Amorah V. Nelson, James R. Vyvyan and Devon A. > Cancilla > Oecologia Vol. 148, No. 2 (Jun., 2006), pp. 304-311 > > <http://www.springerlink.com/content/?Author=A.+I.+Kuklin> > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=8152 or send a blank email to leave-8152-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
