英国帝国理工学院Irene Miguel-Aliaga研究组合作发现肠道碳水化合物代谢的性别差异促进食物摄入和精子成熟。该研究于2019年8月9日发表于国际学术期刊《细胞》上。

研究人员以黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）的肠道为研究对象，探讨了肠道来源的信号是如何影响全身生理的性别差异。研究人员发现碳水化合物处理在肠道的特定部分是偏向雄性的。与无脊椎动物中的已知性二态性相反，肠道碳水化合物代谢的性别差异由邻近的雄性性腺所控制，其激活肠道部分肠细胞中的JAK-STAT信号传导。性逆转实验发现这种在调控食物摄入与精子产生的雄性偏向肠道代谢状态是通过肠道来源的柠檬酸盐所实现的。这些工作揭示雄性性腺-肠道信号轴将饮食和精子生成联系在一起，也揭示了跨器官的代谢交流在生理上的重要性。柠檬酸盐在器官间交流中的指导作用可能在比以往认知中更多的生物行为里具有重要意义。

研究人员表示，生理和代谢往往是具有两性差异的，但其潜在机制仍不完全清楚。

附：英文原文

Author: Bruno Hudry, Eva de Goeij, Alessandro Mineo, Pedro Gaspar, Dafni Hadjieconomou, Chris Studd, Joao B. Mokochinski, Holger B. Kramer, Pierre-Yves Plaais, Thomas Preat, Irene Miguel-Aliaga

Issue&Volume: Volume 178 Issue 4

Abstract: Physiology and metabolism are often sexually dimorphic, but the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here, we use the intestine of Drosophila melanogaster to investigate how gut-derived signals contribute to sex differences in whole-body physiology. We find that carbohydrate handling is male-biased in a specific portion of the intestine. In contrast to known sexual dimorphisms in invertebrates, the sex differences in intestinal carbohydrate metabolism are extrinsically controlled by the adjacent male gonad, which activates JAK-STAT signaling in enterocytes within this intestinal portion. Sex reversal experiments establish roles for this male-biased intestinal metabolic state in controlling food intake and sperm production through gut-derived citrate. Our work uncovers a male gonad-gut axis coupling diet and sperm production, revealing that metabolic communication across organs is physiologically important. The instructive role of citrate in inter-organ communication might be significant in more biological contexts than previously recognized.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.07.029

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30796-2