PhD Defence: Alina Malita Rewitz

Title: Regulation of behavior and metabolism through gut-derived hormone in Drosophila

Abstract:
The gut plays a central role in matching organismal physiology, including behaviour, to environmental variation. Our mechanistic understanding of this role is incomplete. Filling this knowledge gap may illuminate how appetite and neuropsychological disorders such as anxiety and depression are regulated. A genetic screen was performed, targeting factors expected to modulate gut endocrine functions. The screen implicated enteroendocrine signalling in the regulation of feeding and sleep. The goal of the thesis is to enhance mechanistic understanding of the gut's role in these behaviours, by integrative analysis of signalling in the gut and in distal tissues, manipulating nutritional and oxidative environment, and by measuring behavioural outputs alongside some physiological changes (e.g. metabolic indices).