Major

Neuroscience

Anticipated Graduation Year

2021

Access Type

Restricted Access

Abstract

The adipose-derived hormone leptin is involved in regulating homeostatic function. When this satiety signal fails to suppress appetite, the phenomenon is referred to as leptin resistance, but mechanisms contributing to system failure remain unclear. A leptin analog, unpaired1 (upd1), has been found in flies. Varying the level of overexpression of upd1 in the fly brain results in weight gain that scales in a duration-dependent manner, with prolonged overexpression best predicting weight gain. This may provide the first direct evidence that increased leptin itself is a causal factor in the development of leptin resistance.

Faculty Mentors & Instructors

Jennifer Beshel, PhD, Biology Department

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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Modeling leptin resistance in Drosophila melanogaster

The adipose-derived hormone leptin is involved in regulating homeostatic function. When this satiety signal fails to suppress appetite, the phenomenon is referred to as leptin resistance, but mechanisms contributing to system failure remain unclear. A leptin analog, unpaired1 (upd1), has been found in flies. Varying the level of overexpression of upd1 in the fly brain results in weight gain that scales in a duration-dependent manner, with prolonged overexpression best predicting weight gain. This may provide the first direct evidence that increased leptin itself is a causal factor in the development of leptin resistance.