When being obese is healthy: molecular evolution of genes related to metabolism in cetaceans

Abstract

Energetic homeostasis is the process responsible for balancing the energy rates ingested and expelled from our organism. In most mammals, there is a strict control of the homeostasis and satiety regulation, through anorexigenic and orexigenic peptides. However, some lineages of mammals have different regulation, being able to not feed during months and also going through periods of intense feeding, apparently without getting satisfaction. Notorious examples of this behavior are migrating whales that perform long migrations. This project aims to investigate the genetic evolutionary story of this distinct feeding behavior, that evolved independently in some lineages. Accordingly, we investigated the evolutionary rate in genes involved in the central control of the metabolism ( POMC, MC4R, NPY ) in mammals, focusing on cetacean lineage, to better understand their evolutionary histories.