Integrating Environmental Modulation, Osmosensitivity and Signaling in a Model Osmoreceptor

将环境调节、渗透敏感性和信号传导集成到渗透感受器模型中

• 批准号: 1119693
• 负责人: E. Gordon Grau
• 金额: $ 49.1万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1119693&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Integrating; Environmental; Modulation; Osmosensitivity; Signaling

The regulation of salt and water balance, or osmoregulation, is fundamental to the proper function of the molecules that carry on the business of life in living organisms. This project addresses the gap in knowledge of how osmotic balance is monitored and how an organism responds to any deviation from the optimal state. Detection of a change in this critical balance by osmoreceptor cells is the first step in activating the mechanisms which ensure osmotic balance is restored and maintained. Nevertheless, our understanding of how osmoreceptor cells work has been hindered by their complex structure and arrangement among other cells in the brain, kidney and other organs. This makes it extremely difficult to develop useful experimental approaches. The prolactin cell of the tilapia solves this problem. Prolactin is an osmoregulatory hormone in tilapia, a remarkable fish that can live in fresh water and in salinities exceeding that of seawater. Unlike mammals, prolactin cells in tilapia are arranged into a nearly homogeneous mass in the pituitary gland making it easy to study how the cell is regulated. Prolactin cells have been shown to function as osmoreceptors that respond directly to osmotic changes by altering prolactin secretion which restores osmotic balance. An increase in cell size is the trigger that activates cell mechanisms that increase prolactin secretion. This project will investigate how cell size controls the activity/expression of the gene that encodes prolactin. It is anticipated that this work will increase the fundamental understanding of how osmoreceptor cells work in an economically important food fish grown in fresh water and seawater. This project will allow the recruitment, education, and training of high school, undergraduate and graduate students, including those of under-represented minorities from within our multi-ethnic, culturally diverse, University and area schools. Progress will be conveyed via institutional educational programs and will be posted on a publically accessible website: http://www.hawaii.edu/himb/faculty/grau.html.

盐和水平衡的调节或渗透调节是生物体中维持生命活动的分子正常功能的基础。该项目解决了如何监测渗透平衡以及生物体如何应对任何偏离最佳状态的知识差距。渗透压感受器细胞检测到这种关键平衡的变化是激活确保恢复和维持渗透平衡的机制的第一步。然而，我们对渗透压感受器细胞如何工作的理解却因其复杂的结构以及大脑、肾脏和其他器官中其他细胞之间的排列而受到阻碍。这使得开发有用的实验方法变得极其困难。罗非鱼的催乳素细胞解决了这个问题。催乳素是罗非鱼中的一种渗透调节激素，罗非鱼是一种非凡的鱼类，可以在淡水和盐度超过海水的环境中生存。与哺乳动物不同，罗非鱼的催乳素细胞在垂体中排列成几乎均匀的团块，因此很容易研究细胞的调节方式。催乳素细胞已被证明具有渗透压感受器的功能，通过改变催乳素分泌来直接响应渗透压变化，从而恢复渗透平衡。细胞大小的增加是激活增加催乳素分泌的细胞机制的触发器。该项目将研究细胞大小如何控制编码催乳素的基因的活性/表达。 预计这项工作将增进对渗透感受器细胞如何在淡水和海水中生长的具有重要经济意义的食用鱼中发挥作用的基本了解。该项目将允许招募、教育和培训高中生、本科生和研究生，包括来自我们多民族、文化多元化的大学和地区学校中代表性不足的少数族裔的学生。进展将通过机构教育计划传达，并将发布在可公开访问的网站上：http://www.hawaii.edu/himb/faculty/grau.html。