The prevalence of obesity has dramatically increased in western and westernized societies, making the disease the second leading cause of unnecessary deaths in the US. Obesity results from imbalanced metabolic regulation leading to excessive lipid storage. As important novel entities in metabolic regulation, taste receptors and their cells are critical elements that adapt the gustatory system to metabolic signals and vice versa. The role of taste receptor genes in gastrointestinal tissues, as well as their dynamic regulation in gustatory and non-gustatory tissues in response to metabolic cues, has become the focus of an entirely new and rapidly developing research field with impacts on fuel sensing, metabolic control, and ingestive behavior. This book reflects the recent scientific progress in the field of fuel sensing in the mouth, GI tract, and brain and examines the olfactory bulb as a potential metabolic sensor and the brain-gut endocrine axis. It also touches on relevant novel molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating lipid storage and metabolism and covers the identification and functional characterization of obesity genes. Lastly, it illustrates the use of insect models to study relevant problems of energy homeostasis.
Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation 52 Series Editors Dietmar Richter, Henri Tiedge . Wolfgang Meyerhof Hans-Georg Joost l Ulrike Beisiegel l Editors Sensory and Metabolic Control of Energy Balance Editors Wolfgang Meyerhof Department of Molecular Genetics German Institute of Human Nutrition Arthur-Scheunert-Allee 114-116 14558 Nuthetal Germany
[email protected] Ulrike Beisiegel Institute for Molecular Cell Biology University Medical Center HamburgEppendorf (UKE) University of Hamburg Martinistrasse 52 20246 Hamburg, Germany
[email protected] Hans-Georg Joost Department of Pharmacology German Institute of Human Nutrition Arthur-Scheunert-Allee 114-116 14558 Nuthetal Germany
[email protected] Series Editors Dietmar Richter Center for Molecular Neurobiology University Medical Center HamburgEppendorf (UKE) University of Hamburg Martinistrasse 52 20246 Hamburg Germany
[email protected] Henri Tiedge The Robert F. Furchgott Center for Neural and Behavioral Science Department of Physiology and Pharmacology Department of Neurology SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn Brooklyn, New York 11203 USA
[email protected] ISBN 978-3-642-14425-7 e-ISBN 978-3-642-14426-4 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-14426-4 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010936507 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to pros