When being obsese is healthy: molecular evolution of genes related to metabolism in aquatic mammals and hibernating mammals

• Grant number: 18/21672-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2019
• End date: December 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Mariana Freitas Nery
• Grantee: Michelle Carneiro Rachid Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 15/18269-1 - Using comparative genomics to understand convergent evolution of mammals: tracking the molecular footprints of the marine and riverine environment colonisation, AP.JP

Abstract

Energetic homeostasis is the process responsible for balancing the energy rates ingested and expelled from our organism. In most mammals, there is a strict control of the homeostasis and the satiety regulation, through anorexigenics and orexigenics peptides. However, there are some lineages of mammals that have a differentiated regulation, being able to not feed during months and also going through periods of intense feeding, apparently without getting any satisfaction. A notorious example of this behavior can be seen in whales that perform long migrations and bears that hibernate. This project aims to investigate the genetic basis of this distinct feeding behavior that evolved independently in some lineages. Accordingly, the goal of this work is to investigate the evolutionary rate in genes involved in the central control of the metabolism (POMC, MC3R, MC4R, Leptina, AgRP e NPY) in aquatic mammals and bears who hibernate and compare them with other mammals, in a phylogenetic context, to understand the evolution of these genes and to infer their evolutionary stories in molecular level and whether they are convergent.