• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Thursday, September 4, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Hungry for love: gut molecule discovered that flips the feeding-to-mating switch

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 9, 2022
in Biology
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

On Valentine’s Day, couples all over the world will enjoy romantic dinners to celebrate love and relationships. The association between nutrition and mating is not unique to humans but is reflected across species throughout the animal kingdom. However, direct physiological links connecting food consumption and reproductive behaviors were not suspected until recently.

Feeding-to-mating switch

Credit: Wang Lab, UC San Diego

On Valentine’s Day, couples all over the world will enjoy romantic dinners to celebrate love and relationships. The association between nutrition and mating is not unique to humans but is reflected across species throughout the animal kingdom. However, direct physiological links connecting food consumption and reproductive behaviors were not suspected until recently.

Scientists from the University of California San Diego studying fruit flies report that a molecule released from the gut after a meal switches their focus from eating to mating. Publishing in the journal Nature, the researchers found that protein-rich food triggers the release of diuretic hormone 31, or “Dh31,” a signaling molecule discovered to be released from the fly’s gastrointestinal tract. Their identification of Dh31, a neuropeptide considered to be a type of chemical messenger, opens the door to the largely unexplored area of gut-to-brain communication beyond feeding behavior.

“We found the transition from feeding to mating and were very surprised that a single molecule would have such a profound influence on behavior decisions,” said Jing Wang, a professor of Neurobiology in the UC San Diego Division of Biological Sciences and the study’s senior author. “Our study provides a mechanistic explanation of how the Dh31 neuropeptide acts on the brain to change the motivational drive of two evolutionarily critical behaviors.”

In investigating the question of how animals change from a feeding-focused behavior to a mating mindset, UC San Diego researchers and their colleagues at UC Santa Cruz used several methods to arrive at their Dh31 molecule discovery, including genetics, three-photon microscopy and fluorescence imaging.

To confirm their finding, the researchers performed genetics experiments in which Dh31 was knocked out of fruit flies. In these cases, the flies kept feeding and held off mating behavior. In other experiments they activated Dh31 and found the flies rapidly flipped to courtship. Instead of the brain, an expected area for the molecule’s release, they found Dh31 originated in the fly’s gut.

“These results indicate that Dh31 is a signaling molecule that reorders the priority of these two contending behaviors: feeding over courtship in the absence of Dh31 and courtship over feeding when Dh31 is released from the gut,” said Wang.

The researchers further described parallels to Dh31’s function as a signaling molecule. Orexin, a neuropeptide molecule, has proven to play a similar role in mammals in the transition from wakefulness to sleep patterns, including rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep.

These explorations provide insight into decision-making processes when animals switch from one behavior that promotes survival—such as nourishment intake—to a different fundamental behavior such as courtship. Wang said their findings only scratch the surface of understanding how gut hormones function beyond feeding. Future work will investigate how microbiomes factor into gut-to-brain communication.

“This work embodies a multidisciplinary approach to understand behavioral prioritization at multiple levels, from molecules to neurons and circuit function,” said Wang. “This line of work provides us with an empirical paradigm to study the hierarchical organization of different need-based behaviors, a framework established by Abraham Maslow 80 years ago to explain the orderly transition of human behaviors.”

The scientists who contributed to the study include: Hui-Hao Lin, Meihua Christina Kuang, Imran Hossain, Yinan Xuan, Laura Beebe (graduate student), Andrew Shepherd, Marco Rolandi and Jing Wang.



Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-022-04408-7

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

‘A nutrient-specific gut hormone arbitrates between courtship and feeding

Article Publication Date

9-Feb-2022

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Uncovering Heat-Tolerant Flavonoids in Rice Mutant

September 4, 2025

House Centipedes: Rapid Leg Regeneration and Growth

September 4, 2025

Feed Additives Shield Quails from Gossypol Damage

September 4, 2025

Unlocking the Genetic Secrets of Migratory Mammals

September 3, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • Needlestick Injury Rates in Nurses and Students in Pakistan

    297 shares
    Share 119 Tweet 74
  • Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    155 shares
    Share 62 Tweet 39
  • Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    143 shares
    Share 57 Tweet 36
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    118 shares
    Share 47 Tweet 30

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Sex Differences in Preclinical Models of Liver Disease

Mir-199a-3p Fuels Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s Model

Chronic Ototoxicity Triggers Early Hair Cell Gene Downregulation

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.