Pineal-specific agouti protein regulates teleost background adaptation

Reply to Braasch and Postlethwait: Evolutionary origin of the teleost A2 agouti genes (agouti signaling protein 2 and agouti-related protein 2) remains unclear.

Agouti regulates adipocyte transcription factors.

Agouti is a secreted paracrine factor that regulates pigmentation in hair follicle melanocytes. Several dominant mutations cause ectopic expression of agouti, resulting in a phenotype characterized by yellow fur, adult-onset obesity and diabetes, increased linear growth and skeletal mass, and increased susceptibility to tumors. Humans also produce agouti protein, but the highest levels of agout...

The teleost agouti-related protein 2 gene is an ohnolog gone missing from the tetrapod genome.

A central question in evolutionary genomics is how morphological differences between taxa arise from differences in gene repertoire. Answers require rigorous orthology assignments. Recent work (1) illuminated the mechanism of background adaptation in teleost fishes by investigating the function of agoutirelated protein 2 (agrp2), a gene so far found only in teleosts. Agouti family proteins anta...

Structural changes in the pars intermedia of the cichlid teleost Sarotherodon mossambicus as a result of background and adaptation and illumination. III. The role of the pineal organ.

The MSH producing cells in the pars intermedia of Sarotherodon mossambicus have been shown to be involved in background adaptation processes. Reflected light received by the eyes affects the activity of these cells. In the present study the hypothesis has been tested that also the pineal organ, as a second photoreceptor, is involved in regulation of the metabolic activity of the MSH cells. The ...

Protein kinase A regulates gene-specific translational adaptation in differentiating yeast.

Cellular differentiation is driven by coordinately regulated changes in gene expression. Recent discoveries suggest that translation contributes as much as transcription to regulating protein abundance, but the role of translational regulation in cellular differentiation is largely unexplored. Here we investigate translational reprogramming in yeast during cellular adaptation to the absence of ...