The holidays are upon us, which means spending precious time with friends and family but more importantly lots and lots and lots of food! Roast turkey, stuffing, Honey-cured British Gammon with Plum & Ginger Glaze, Yorkshire pudding, chunky roast potatoes, roast parsnips and carrots, cranberry sauce, gravy, Christmas sticky toffee pudding, eggnog, mulled wine, and the list goes on. With all this food, how can you control yourself and know when to stop feasting on cake and Christmas ham?
Well, that’s where the SKN-1B gene comes into place, this gene was identified as a novel appetite regulation gene where it controls food associated behaviours (seeking out food, eating food and feeling satisfied after a meal), body size, late life body fat accumulation, mitochondrial networks, and other aspects of metabolism. These findings were produced by the Tullet lab at the University of Kent and were observed in the tiny transparent nematode worm, C. elegans1. The SKN-1B gene also has a mammalian orthologue, NF-E2 related transcription factors (Nrfs), which means that the results from the experiments that use C. elegans can be translated to humans. All of this and more makes this gene a promising target for weight loss pharmacological interventions which will ultimately help to combat complications resulting from metabolic disorders and help to increase our health-span as we age1.
References
- Tataridas-Pallas, N. et al. Neuronal SKN-1B modulates nutritional signalling pathways and mitochondrial networks to control satiety. PLoS Genet 17, e1009358 (2021).