Life Sciences News Contest: Can You Get Fat by Smelling It? Smells tell you through the brain to store more fat.

Odor tells you how to store more fat through the brain. In the main body of life science press release competition, a paper published recently in nature communications, "olfactory specification regulations lipid metabolism through neuroendocrine signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans" describes in detail how olfactory affects fat metabolism through specific olfactory neurons.the researchers found that when C. elegans were exposed to the odor of 2-butanone for 4 hours, the fat content of the nematodes increased, i.e., the nematodes became "fat.".after removing the odor, the fat content of nematodes returned to normal level.why does the fat content increase when you just smell it? One possible explanation is that the odor of the environment, 2-butanone, carries some kind of signal.under some biological conditions, some fungi and bacteria can produce 2-butanone through decarboxylation of β - keto acid formed during fatty acid oxidation.nematodes feed on bacteria and are more sensitive to the odor of 2-butanone. 2-butanone may "tell" that the availability of environmental lipids in nematodes is reduced, which signals the lack of environmental lipids, and triggers the regulation of nematode metabolism to fat accumulation.this is the adjustment of animal metabolic strategy, which has the evolutionary meaning of "survival of the fittest".we know that obesity is closely related to metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, which brings huge health risks. The susceptibility of obesity involves many environmental and genetic factors.and olfactory perception is an important way to perceive the surrounding environment. Researchers have studied the potential mechanism of olfactory perception and fat metabolism, and revealed the important bridge between olfactory perception and fat metabolism - neuronal pathway.experiment idea 1) firstly, the daff-11 mutant, which leads to increased fat storage, was selected and labeled with deuterium oleic acid (oa-d34) for labeling / tracking analysis to determine the rate of lipid synthesis and catabolism.in daff-11 mutants, the rate of fat synthesis remained unchanged, but the rate of fat decomposition decreased.2) using [daf-11: RFP] staining in vitro gene array for mosaic analysis, the changes of fat metabolism caused by daff-11 mutation were located in AMC neurons. Then we explored the effects of AMC genetic ablation, selective loss of AMC asymmetric neurons, genetic ablation of downstream neurons AIY and the effects of light activation of neurons on fat level, and mapped the fine pathway of olfactory specific regulation of fat metabolism. Similar methods were used to identify the FOXO transcription factor daff-16 D / F subtype, sgk-1 kinase, neuropeptide flp-1 and neuropeptide receptor npr-4.olfaction regulates lipid metabolism through neuroendocrine signaling mechanism / in this series of experiments, how to observe the dynamic changes of fat content? The first mock exam model has been applied in the research. Br / >however, the molecular imaging of nematodes at the molecular level is simple and can be carried out at the molecular level of lipid storage.stimulated Raman scattering microscope images / conclusion olfactory perception is a fine regulated and highly specific process, and its specificity depends on the diversity of odor signals in the environment and olfactory neurons as well."specific odor" indicates that not all odors affect fat metabolism, while "specific receptor" indicates that the same odor has different effects on fat metabolism when presented to different receptors.for individuals, different combinations of odor receptors in olfactory neurons form a "characteristic fingerprint" for each person to recognize odor. "characteristic fingerprint" determines the characteristic lipid metabolism reaction of each person in the face of environmental odor stimulation, which also explains the difference of individual obesity susceptibility. let's hope that with the development of the research on the mechanism between olfactory specificity and obesity, and with the decoding of the "characteristic fingerprint" of each person's odor recognition, obesity will no longer be a depressing topic. references Mutlu a s, Gao s m, Zhang h, et al. Olfactory specification regulations lipid metadata through neuroendocrine signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans [J]. Nature communications, 2020, Asnchina end life science press release competition special statement: the above content (including pictures or videos) is provided by the author, ASN only provides information release channel, if there is infringement, please contact the backstage to delete. Notice: The content above (including the pictures and videos if any) is provided by an author of ASN, which is a social media platform and only provides information release services.