Neuroendocrine control of feeding and reproduction

描述（由申请人提供）：动物的健康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。对于大多数动物来说，能量的可用性及其生物分配是生殖调节的最终因素;因此，动物的代谢状况与其生殖行为密切相关。最近涉及能量可用性和生殖之间的协调的一个因素是促性腺激素释放激素变体，GnRH II。这种肽在从鱼类到人类的脊椎动物物种中高度保守，但对其生物学功能知之甚少。最近的证据将GnRH II与能量可用性以及喂养和生殖行为的变化联系起来。我假设，GnRH II作为一个允许的因素，繁殖的基础上，动物的营养和精力充沛的状态。该提案的目标是表征食物可用性，行为和GnRH II之间的关系，并确定肽的作用机制。具体目标有三个：（1）确定GnRH II激活以调节行为的受体亚型和途径; 2.）确定GnRH II在行为调节中的神经作用部位; 3.）确定精力充沛的状态如何影响GnRH II肽和2型GnRH受体在大脑中的含量。

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.