Final Report Summary - NEUROAGE (From Environment to Physiology: Neuroendocrine Circuits and Genetic Mechanisms that Modulate Ageing and Development)
Health and disease are affected by environmental factors such as food and temperature. We sought to understand how animals interpret complex environments to generate appropriate changes in their physiology. Here we address this question by studying the insulin-like peptides and the genes that regulate them, which allows us to understand communication in the hormonal systems that link environment to physiology. We use a simple roundworm that uses the same genes as humans and other animals for our research, because it is very easy to manipulate experimentally.
We sought to understand how the levels of specific hormones from the nervous system change in response to environmental factors such as food levels, and relate these hormonal changes to the changes in development or lifespan elicited by these environmental factors. In particular, we determined how a system of insulin-like peptide hormone could serve as signals to regulate the activity each other, which in turn modulate the developmental or ageing process. By studying the genetic regulation between these insulin-like peptide hormones and other hormones that regulate them, we have uncovered the role of these hormones in mediating communication between different parts of an animal, the information about the environment that these hormones transmitted, and the routes they take. We also leart about how the levels of specific hormones are related to different environments, which reveal how well animals could distinguish between different environments to modulate their physiology using these hormones from the nervous system.
We sought to understand how the levels of specific hormones from the nervous system change in response to environmental factors such as food levels, and relate these hormonal changes to the changes in development or lifespan elicited by these environmental factors. In particular, we determined how a system of insulin-like peptide hormone could serve as signals to regulate the activity each other, which in turn modulate the developmental or ageing process. By studying the genetic regulation between these insulin-like peptide hormones and other hormones that regulate them, we have uncovered the role of these hormones in mediating communication between different parts of an animal, the information about the environment that these hormones transmitted, and the routes they take. We also leart about how the levels of specific hormones are related to different environments, which reveal how well animals could distinguish between different environments to modulate their physiology using these hormones from the nervous system.