'Missing' hormone found in birds
IANS
New York, March 25: Know how can the Arctic
tern, a sea bird, fly more than 128,000 km in its round-trip from north
pole to south pole? Or how does the emperor penguin incubate eggs for
months during the Antarctic winter without eating?
These physiological gymnastics would
usually be influenced by leptin, the hormone that regulates body fat
storage, metabolism and appetite.
However, leptin has gone missing in birds - until now.
Researchers from Ohio-based University of Akron
have discovered leptin in the mallard duck, peregrine falcon and zebra
finch, marking the first time the hormone has been found in birds.
“It has been a pretty big deal because people
wanted to study leptin in birds for the poultry industry, for instance,
to develop faster growing and tastier chicken,” said Richard
Londraville, professor of biology at University of Akron.
Interestingly, leptin has yet to be discovered in
chickens perhaps because their gene structure varies from that of other
birds, he noted.
Professor of biology R. Joel Duff made the initial
discovery by comparing ancient fish and reptile leptins to predict the
bird sequence.
Duff identified the sequence in multiple bird
genomes and found that the genomic region where leptin was found is
similar to that of other vertebrates.
“This study now sets the stage for future studies
on the evolution of leptin function and reinforces that studies on
hormone sequences should be complemented by hormone receptor modeling
studies,” explained Robert Dores, editor-in-chief of the journal General
and Comparative Endocrinology.
The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
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