Metabolic and Endocrine Control of Behavior

能量可用性是一个环境因素，在调节野生和家养动物的生殖方面发挥着作用，但我们对将能量可用性与生育力和生殖行为联系起来的机制知之甚少。 当食物缺乏时，哺乳动物的生殖功能，如季节性繁殖、青春期和哺乳期可能会大大减少。 不久前，人们发现由脂肪体细胞自然产生和分泌的瘦素分子是一种影响新陈代谢的激素。 现在看来，瘦素可能会向大脑发出信号，告诉动物有多少代谢燃料可用，它也可能是生殖准备的调节剂。 该项目利用药理学、分子生物学和行为学方法对一种啮齿类动物进行研究，这种啮齿类动物的排卵周期相对较短且非常有规律。 该项目确定的关键事件涉及瘦素的关联与现象的anestrous（通常的发情消失）时，氧化代谢燃料低，即使当体脂水平可能很高。 该项目还将定位瘦素在大脑中影响发情周期的位置。 研究结果将为理解能量水平与生殖功能之间的关系提供一个新的视角，以及生物体如何适应环境扰动的生殖策略，因此其影响将超越神经内分泌学。 此外，该项目将促进教育与研究的相当程度的结合，并促进妇女在生物学领域的职业生涯，因为该项目主要设在一所本科学校，而且主要研究员大力参与教学和辅导学生。

Energy availability is an environmental factor that plays a role in regulating reproduction in animals, both wild and domestic, but we know very little about the mechanisms that link energy availability to fertility and reproductive behavior. When food is scarce, reproductive functions such as seasonal breeding, puberty, and lactation in mammals may be strongly reduced. Not long ago the molecule leptin, naturally made and secreted by fat body cells, was discovered to act as a hormone affecting metabolism. It now appears that leptin may signal the brain about how much metabolic fuel is available for an animal, and it may also act as a modulator of reproductive readiness. This project addresses those hypotheses using pharmacology, molecular biology and behavioral approaches on a rodent species chosen for its comparatively short and very regular periodic ovulatory (estrous) cycle. The project determines the critical events involving leptin's association with the phenomenon of anestrous (the disappearance of the usual estrous) when oxidizable metabolic fuel is low, even when body fat levels may be high. The project will also localize where in the brain the leptin acts to influence estrous cyclicity. Results will give a novel perspective for understanding the relationship between energy levels and reproductive functions, and how organisms adapt their reproductive strategies to environmental perturbations, so the impact will extend beyond neuroendocrinology. In addition, the project will foster considerable integration of education with research, and of fostering careers of women in biology, because of the location at a largely undergraduate school and because of the strong involvement of the principal investigator with teaching and mentoring students.