Oxytocin (OXT; hereafter OT) and arginine vasopressin or vasotocin (AVP or VT; hereafter VT) are neurotransmitter ligands that function through specific receptors to control diverse functions^1,2. Here we performed genomic analyses on 35 species that span all major vertebrate lineages, including newly generated high-contiguity assemblies from the Vertebrate Genomes Project^3,4. Our findings support the claim⁵ that OT (also known as OXT) and VT (also known as AVP) are adjacent paralogous genes that have resulted from a local duplication, which we infer was through DNA transposable elements near the origin of vertebrates and in which VT retained more of the parental sequence. We identified six major oxytocin–vasotocin receptors among vertebrates. We propose that all six of these receptors arose from a single receptor that was shared with the common ancestor of invertebrates, through a combination of whole-genome and large segmental duplications. We propose a universal nomenclature based on evolutionary relationships for the genes that encode these receptors, in which the genes are given the same orthologous names across vertebrates and paralogous names relative to each other. This nomenclature avoids confusion due to differential naming in the pre-genomic era and incomplete genome assemblies, furthers our understanding of the evolution of these genes, aids in the translation of findings across species and serves as a model for other gene families.

催产素（OXT；以下简称 OT）和精氨酸加压素或血管收缩素（AVP 或 VT；以下简称 VT）是神经递质配体，通过特定受体发挥作用以控制多种功能^1,2。^{在这里，我们对跨越所有主要脊椎动物谱系的 35 个物种进行了基因组分析，包括来自脊椎动物基因组计划3,4}的新生成的高连续性组装。^{我们的研究结果支持5 的}说法，即OT（也称为OXT）和VT（也称为AVP）是相邻的旁系同源基因，由局部复制产生，我们推断这是通过脊椎动物起源附近的 DNA 转座因子，其中VT保留了更多的亲本序列。我们在脊椎动物中鉴定出六种主要的催产素-血管缩宫素受体。我们提出，所有这六种受体都来自与无脊椎动物的共同祖先共享的单一受体，通过全基因组和大片段重复的组合。我们提出了一个基于编码这些受体的基因的进化关系的通用命名法，其中这些基因在脊椎动物中被赋予相同的直系同源名称和相对于彼此的旁系同源名称。这种命名法避免了前基因组时代和不完整的基因组组装因差异命名而造成的混淆，加深了我们对这些基因进化的理解，有助于跨物种发现的转化，并作为其他基因家族的模型。