Neuroendocrine control of feeding and reproduction

描述（由申请人提供）：动物的适应性取决于其成功繁殖的能力，这一目标取决于行为、生理和环境因素的精确协调。对大多数动物来说，能量的可利用性及其生物分配是调节繁殖的最终因素；因此，动物的代谢状况与其繁殖行为密切相关。最近涉及能量供应和生殖之间协调的一个因素是促性腺激素释放激素变体GnRH II。这种肽在脊椎动物物种中是高度保守的，从鱼类到人类，但对其生物学功能知之甚少。最近的证据表明GnRH II与能量供应以及喂养和繁殖行为的变化有关。我假设GnRH II是基于动物的营养和能量状态的繁殖许可因子。本提案的目的是表征食物供应，行为和GnRH II之间的关系，并确定肽的作用机制。有三个具体目标：确定受体亚型和途径激活GnRH II调节行为；2)。确定GnRH II在行为调节中的神经作用部位；3)。确定能量状态如何影响大脑中GnRH II肽和2型GnRH受体的含量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An animal's fitness is dependent on its ability to successfully reproduce, a goal that is contingent on the precise coordination of behavior, physiology, and environmental factors. For most animals, energy availability and its biological allocation are the ultimate factors in the regulation of reproduction; the metabolic condition of an animal is therefore tightly linked to its reproductive behavior. One factor recently implicated in the coordination between energy availability and reproduction is the gonadotropin-releasing hormone variant, GnRH II. This peptide is highly conserved across vertebrate species, from fish to humans, and yet little is known about its biological functions. Recent evidence links GnRH II to changes in energy availability as well as feeding and reproductive behaviors. I hypothesize that GnRH II acts as a permissive factor for reproduction based on an animal's nutritional and energetic status. The goal of this proposal is to characterize the relationship between food availability, behavior, and GnRH II, and to determine the peptide's mechanism of action. There are three specific aims: 1.) Determine the receptor subtypes and pathways that GnRH II activates to regulate behavior; 2.) Determine the neural sites of action for GnRH II in the regulation of behavior; 3.) Determine how energetic status affects GnRH II peptide and type-2 GnRH receptor content in the brain.