Possible involvement of melanin-concentrating hormone in food intake in a teleost fish, barfin flounder.
We investigated the involvement of MCH in food intake in barfin flounder. The structure of barfin flounder MCH was determined by cDNA cloning and mass spectrometry. In fasted fish, the MCH gene expression and the number of MCH neurons in the brain were greater than controls. In white-reared fish, the MCH gene expression and the number of MCH neurons in the brain were greater than black-reared fish. Furthermore, white-reared fish grew faster than black-reared fish. These results indicate that a white background stimulated production of MCH and MCH, in turn, enhanced body growth, probably by stimulating food intake.
School of Fisheries Sciences, Kitasato University, Ofunato, Iwate 022-0101, Japan. akiyoshi@kitasato-u.ac.jp
Akiyoshi
A
Takahashi
Keisuke
K
Tsuchiya
Takeshi
T
Yamanome
Masafumi
M
Amano
Akikazu
A
Yasuda
Kunio
K
Yamamori
Hiroshi
H
Kawauchi
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D002149:Energy Intake; D005215:Fasting / Q000502:physiology; D005432:Flounder / Q000502:physiology*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology; D007028:Hypothalamic Hormones / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000502:physiology; D008543:Melanins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010907:Pituitary Hormones / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D007028:Hypothalamic Hormones; D008543:Melanins; D010907:Pituitary Hormones; C019463:melanin-concentrating hormone