Week 2

Question 1

How can the environment impact phenotype?

Answer 1

Environmental factors such as diet, temperature, oxygen levels, humidity, light cycles, and the presence of mutagens can all impact which of an animal’s genes are expressed, which ultimately affects the animal’s phenotype.

Question 2

What is metabolic signalling?

Answer 2

The decision-making process of cells.

Question 3

Why is metabolic signalling important?

Answer 3

These signaling pathways maintain homeostasis by allowing sufficient nutrient uptake to maintain metabolic demand.

Question 4

How is metabolic homeostasis determined

Answer 4

By the cellular energy state, and this is set and maintained through near equilibrium reactions that regulate the ATP producing pathways, represented by glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation.

Question 5

What is one of the most fundamental biological processes?

Answer 5

Metabolite sensing

Question 6

How did multilayer mechanisms develop during evolution?

Answer 6

To sense fluctuations in a wide spectrum of metabolites, including nutrients, to coordinate cellular metabolism and biological networks.

Question 7

What are the best-understood metabolite-sensing and signalling?

Answer 7

AMPK and mTOR signaling

Question 8

What is the relationship between GPCRs and adipocytes?

Answer 8

Adhesion GPCR are significantly involved in qualitative and quantitative adipocyte lipid accumulation and can control lipolysis.

Question 9

What is the integrated stress response?

Answer 9

An evolutionarily conserved intracellular signaling network that helps the cell, tissue, and organism to adapt to a variable environment and maintain health.

Question 10

What does the mitochondrial stress response regulate?

Answer 10

Regulates signaling and various cellular functions

Question 11

What does mTOR refer to?

Answer 11

Two protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, that function as master switches in the cell’s nutrient sensing pathways.

Question 12

What is AMPK?

Answer 12

An enzyme that plays a role in cellular energy homeostasis, largely to activate glucose and fatty acid uptake and oxidation when cellular energy is low.

Question 13

Which nuclear receptors function as regulators of metabolism and liver physiology?

Answer 13

• ERRs
• REV-ERBs
• RORs
• FXR
• PPARs
• LXR

Question 14

How is LXR activated?

Answer 14

By endogenous ligands, including cholesterol derivatives such as oxysterols and 24(S),25-epoxycholesterol, and by intermediate precursors in the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway, such as desmosterol

Question 15

What is the relationship between bile acids and FXR?

Answer 15

FXR regulates bile acid synthesis, conjugation, and transport, as well as various aspects of lipid and glucose metabolism

Question 16

What does activated PPA-alpha provide?

Answer 16

Energy from fatty acid catabolism during starvation and cold acclimatization, PPARγ is activated in the well fed state and regulates the synthesis of fatty acids and related lipids, while PPARβ/δ ensures, among other, that fatty acids can provide energy for working muscles.

Question 17

What do peptide hormones play a prominent role in?

Answer 17

Controlling energy homeostasis and metabolism

Question 18

What is systemic physiology?

Answer 18

A branch of physiology that deals with the study of specific organ systems, such as how they function

Question 19

What does dietary protein profoundly influence?

Answer 19

Organismal traits ultimately affecting healthspan

Question 20

What are peptide hormones critical factors of?

Answer 20

Determining systemic responses to variations in protein intake

Question 21

What is pancreatic alpha cell’s recognised for?

Answer 21

Their production of glucagon, a diabetogenic hormone that regulates hepatic glucose production to maintain plasma glucose levels during fasting, has become a focus of attention as a potential target for the treatment of diabetes

Question 22

What does FGF21 play an important role in?

Answer 22

Regulating hepatic oxidation of fatty acids and gluconeogenesis in response to fasting and during consumption of a ketogenic diet.

Question 23

What has the past decade of application of the state-of the-art metabolomics and genomics technologies revealed?

Answer 23

The remarkable plasticity of tumor metabolism and bioenergetics.

Question 24

What has tumour cells used glucose and glutamine for?

Answer 24

Generating cellular energy, reducing power, and metabolic building blocks for biosynthesis.

Question 25

How do cancer cells generate most of their cellular energy?

Answer 25

Mitochondrial respiration and oxidative phosphorylation

Question 26

Where do tumour cells exhibit their most versitility?

Answer 26

In using bioenergetics substrates

Question 27

What is a critical mechanism for tumor cells with defective mitochondria to restore oxidative phosphorylation?

Answer 27

Mitochondrial transfer

Question 28

What is a common feature of the Warburg metabolism?

Answer 28

Increased glucose uptake and fermentation of glucose to lactate.

Question 29

Where does abnormal cancer metabolism have an important role in?

Answer 29

Tumorigenesis, metastasis, drug resistance, and cancer stem cells.

Question 30

What do the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT, Myc, and Hippo pathways mediate?

Answer 30

Metabolic gene expression and increase metabolic enzyme activities

Question 31

What does PKM2 regulate?

Answer 31

The rate-limiting step of glycolysis that shifts the glucose metabolism from the normal respiratory chain to lactate production in tumor cells.

Question 32

How does oncometabolite 2HG operate as a signaling molecule?

Answer 32

To sustain malignant growth, cancer cells gauge nutrient availability to coordinate cellular metabolism.

Question 33

What is translational control?

Answer 33

A crucial component of cancer development and progression, directing both global control of protein synthesis and selective translation of specific mRNAs that promote tumour cell survival, angiogenesis, transformation, invasion and metastasis.

Question 34

What is PI3K in cancer?

Answer 34

A type of enzyme that transmits signals in cells and that helps control cell growth.

Question 35

What is the basis of PI3K inhibitor therapy?

Answer 35

The observation that hyperactivity of PI3K signaling is significantly correlated with human tumor progression, increased tumor microvessel density and enhanced chemotaxis and invasive potential of cancer cells.

Question 36

What is the relationship between obesity and liver cancer

Answer 36

Experts believe that fat tissue in the liver produces inflammation, which may lead to changes in liver tissue including the development of fibrosis and cirrhosis as well as increased risk of insulin resistance. Over time, these changes may lead to liver cancer.