DH44 neurons: gut-brain amino acid sensors
Maintaining protein homeostasis is essential for the survival of animals.A recent study in Cell Research identifies a group of DH44+ neuroendocrine cells in the Drosophila brain as a novel fast-acting amino acid sensor,which detects three specific dietary amino acids and promotes food intake.Protein is a major dietary nutrient required for sustaining animal life.Amino acids,building blocks of proteins,are essential for many physiological processes.Selecting and balancing the quality and quantity of food to meet specific metabolic needs relies on multiple sensors in both peripheral and central nervous systems.In the common vinegar fly,Drosophila melanogaster,a number of amino acid detection mechanisms are thought to operate in different life stages.In larvae,at least two amino acid-sensing mechanisms have been reported.First,some dopaminergic neurons in the larval brain act as sensors of essential amino acids via a conserved signal-transducing kinase GCN2 and serve to reject foods that are deficient in essential amino acids.1 Second,larval insulin-producing cells (IPCs) can directly sense L-leucine via a leucine transporter,Minidiscs (MND),and regulate release of Drosophila insulin-like peptides (Dilps).2 In adult flies,long-term protein deprivation has been shown to induce changes in dopaminergic neuronal circuits and promote protein consumption,3 whereas consumption of protein food has been shown to induce the release of Dilp2 via a sexually dimorphic fat body peptide named female-specific independent of transformer (FIT) and suppress further protein intake.4 Other than these central mechanisms,peripheral sensing of amino acid and protein requires an ionotropic receptor,IR76b,to drive protein preference and intake.
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2018-12-20（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）
共2页
1048-1049
