Integrative approaches to thermoregulation: behavioural, physiological, and molecular

所有动物都需要氧气来维持有氧代谢，并最终生存下来。尽管如此，在某些情况下，外部或内部产生的氧气是有限的，称为缺氧。动物有许多适应这些环境压力的能力。我的研究项目的目标是了解当高代谢率或高体温不可能或低效维持的时候，动物如何控制它们的体温和新陈代谢，比如在缺氧、体温过低、冬眠、麻木或睡眠期间。目前，此控件驻留在正文中的位置是未知的。细胞和组织似乎有调节新陈代谢的内在机制，但神经系统作为控制中心的作用却鲜为人知。这些新陈代谢状态降低在动物界的广泛流行表明，在整个进化过程中，迫切需要开发替代的生理策略来应对严重的环境条件。我采取比较和综合的方法，研究那些自然进化出应对低氧的生理防御系统的动物。我一直在开发一个研究项目，旨在研究动物如何利用温度来改变它们的新陈代谢需求，因为众所周知，寒冷会减缓新陈代谢过程。事实证明，所有动物都喜欢较低的体温，在面临缺氧时表现出较低的新陈代谢。这是如何在生理和行为上受到控制的，以及为什么所有动物都表现出这种反应，特别是当缺氧只发生在特定的环境或生命时期时，尚不清楚。了解这一过程将有助于阐明动物如何修改和操纵新陈代谢需求，并可能导致旨在改变新陈代谢和降低体温的干预措施的开发。鉴于最近快速的气候变化，更好地了解动物调节温度的内在行为和生理手段，也将使我们能够更准确地预测和评估动物如何以及是否能够成功地应对这些变化。

All animals require oxygen to maintain aerobic metabolism and ultimately to survive. Nonetheless, there are situations, externally or internally generated, where oxygen is limited, called hypoxia. Animals possess numerous adaptations for coping with these kinds of environmental stresses. The goal of my research program is to understand how animals control their body temperature and metabolism during times when a high metabolic rate or high body temperature is impossible or inefficient to sustain, such as during hypoxia, hypothermia, hibernation, torpor or sleep. Currently, where this control resides in the body is unknown. Cells and tissues seem to have built-in mechanisms for regulating metabolism, but the role of the nervous system as the control centre is less well known. The widespread prevalence in the animal kingdom of these reduced metabolic states argues for a great need throughout evolution for the development of alternative physiological strategies for coping with severe environmental conditions. I take a comparative and integrative approach, studying animals that have naturally evolved physiological defences for coping with hypoxia. I have been developing a research program aimed at studying how animals utilise temperature to alter their metabolic needs, since it is well known that cold slows metabolic processes. It turns out that all animals prefer lower body temperatures and exhibit lower metabolism when faced with hypoxia. How this is controlled physiologically and behaviourally, and why all animals exhibit this response, particularly when hypoxia only occurs in certain environments or times of life, is unknown. Understanding this process will shed light on how animals modify and manipulate metabolic needs, and potentially lead to the development of interventions aimed at altering metabolism and lowering body temperature. In light of recent, rapid climate changes, a better understanding of the inherent behavioural and physiological means by which animals regulate temperature will also allow us to predict and assess more accurately how and if animals can successfully cope with these changes.