Nutrient sensors

SummaryElucidating the cellular and molecular basis of nutrient metabolism and regulation of feeding has become a major focus in scientific research over the last twenty years. Because of the increasing number of overweight and obese people in western and other societies, research efforts have initially been directed towards the basic metabolic processes that regulate nutrient uptake of cells and organ systems. One of the major goals of this research is to better understand the physiological and molecular processes that are disrupted or deregulated in various diseases, including diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome and heart disease. But research efforts have expanded to include the neural and molecular underpinnings of feeding behavior. It has become apparent that a central role in nutrient metabolism and, by extension, the regulation of feeding behavior, is the sensing of different classes of nutrients. Our goal is to provide an overview of what is currently known about nutrient sensors both in mammals and the invertebrate model system Drosophila melanogaster.