More than 30 years have passed since the initial discoveries of bioactive peptides in tissues
from vertebrate and invertebrate non-mammalian species. Although a large number of these
peptides derive from Erspamer's prodigious work on amphibian skin, bioactive peptides
have also been discovered in insects, fishes, avians and reptiles (see Ref.[1] for review). It is
likely that such peptides represent an ancient form of inter-and intracellular communication.
Investigators have designed peptide phylogenetic trees by tracing common amino acid …