Energy metabolism: mechanisms, diversity and evolution

能量代谢是所有生物功能的核心。在动物中，参与能量代谢的生理学和生物化学是基于保守的蓝图，该蓝图被调整以服务于不同的功能（例如在组织之间）和广泛的性能（例如运动）。我感兴趣的生理系统和生物化学途径参与能量如何在个体之间变化，以及它们如何在进化过程中进行调整，以产生在动物表现中观察到的多样性。为了解决这些问题，我研究了昆虫飞行的能量学。昆虫飞行是研究能量代谢的一个很好的模型，因为飞行性能在不同物种之间差异很大，并且它是动物进行的最昂贵的活动。在蜜蜂和黄蜂中，飞行肌细胞的能量需求在不同物种之间有几倍的差异;然而，我们不知道解释这种差异的潜在机制。使用各种方法来整合生理学和进化领域，我研究了一个物种和一个人的特征如何决定飞行的能量需求。我工作的另一个主要组成部分是研究能量多样性的细胞基础。细胞能量产生的变化涉及通过改变形成代谢途径的酶的性质或数量来定制代谢途径。我研究这些蛋白质在飞行肌肉细胞中的变化，以及它如何与物种和个人的表现，最终将这种变化与相关基因的调节方式联系起来。最后，我研究了与肌肉能量使用有关的生理学，即燃料储存和输送。这项工作的影响是我们理解动物能量学多样性及其演变的基础。我的研究将提供有关传粉者飞行性能和影响它的变量的信息。

Energy metabolism is central to all biological functions. In animals, the physiology and biochemistry involved in energy metabolism is based on a conserved blueprint which is adjusted to serve different functions (e.g. among tissues) and wide-ranging performances (e.g. locomotion). I am interested in how physiological systems and biochemical pathways involved in energetics vary among individuals and how they are adjusted over evolutionary time to generate the diversity observed in animal performance. To address these questions, I study the energetics of flight in insects. Insect flight is a good model to study energy metabolism because flight performance varies widely across species and it is the most expensive activity performed by animals. In bees and wasps, the energy requirements of flight muscle cells vary several-fold across species; nevertheless, we do not know the underlying mechanisms that explain this variation. Using various approaches developed to integrate the fields of physiology and evolution, I investigate how characteristics of a species and an individual determine the energy requirements for flight. Another major component of my work studies the cellular basis of energetics diversity. Variation in cellular energy production involves customizing metabolic pathways by changing the properties or quantities of the enzymes that form the pathways. I study the variation of these proteins in flight muscle cells and how it relates to species and individual performance, ultimately connecting this variation with how the involved genes are regulated. Finally, I examine physiologies connected to muscle energy use, namely fuel storage and delivery. The implications of this work are fundamental to our understanding of diversity in animal energetics and how it evolves. My research will provide information on flight performance of pollinators and the variables affecting it.