Articles in 2022

Malita, Kubrak et al. show that the gut-derived hormone neuropeptide F suppresses sugar intake and increases the consumption of protein-rich food in Drosophila. This gives insight into the regulation of nutrient-specific appetite that ensures appropriate food choices to meet nutritional demands.

The human gut microbiome metabolizes hundreds of drugs, but the clinical relevance of these biotransformations remains unclear. Chen and colleagues show that gut bacterial nicotine metabolism protects against liver disease.

Scherer and colleagues demonstrate that manipulation of iron concentrations in the mitochondrial matrix of macrophages has profound effects on their polarization, leading to concomitant changes in adipocyte iron concentrations and, ultimately, systemic metabolic effects.

Using inducible transgenic mouse models, Joffin, Gliniak and colleagues demonstrate that altering mitochondrial iron levels in adipose tissue macrophages has profound effects on systemic metabolism in male mice.

The core metabolic pathways are tightly intertwined, creating challenges for metabolic engineering. Yu et al. present a synthetic decarboxylation cycle that substitutes the TCA cycle in energy metabolism, gaining high yields in the production of reduced compounds such as fatty acids.

In our tenth instalment of Career pathways, Jin Zhang and Christiane Wrann reflect on their journeys to becoming PIs and the importance of having a vision for your research, finding the right team, and sharing the joy of science through the training of students.

In this study, Yu et al. engineer a decarboxylation cycle in the yeast cytoplasm that provides increased reductive power to enhance bioproduction of reduced chemicals.

An explosion of recent work has harnessed the power of single-cell biology to reveal the transcriptomic diversity of cell types in the mouse hypothalamus. Steuernagel, Lam and co-authors present HypoMap, a comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic atlas of the mouse hypothalamus.

Biotransformation of xenobiotics by gut microbiota can impact bioactivity and toxicity. A new study shows how hydrogen sulfide generated by gut microbes reduces azo compounds extracellularly and non-enzymatically.

Wolfson et al. show that microbial hydrogen sulfide contributes to the nonenzymatic reduction of azo xenobiotics, which include food dyes and drugs. This modulates sulfur homeostasis, xenobiotic metabolism and the chemical landscape of the gut.

Bar-Peled and Kory discuss how metabolic compartmentalization, defined as the spatial and temporal separation of pathways and components within a system, can shape organismal metabolism, while its dysregulation can lead to pathological states.

The author discusses how metabolic engagements and reconfiguration of immune and non-immune cells following virus recognition modulate the natural course of viral infections, and how such early metabolic alterations are likely to influence longer-term disease manifestations of infection.

Steuernagel and Lam et al. present HypoMap, an integrated reference atlas of the murine hypothalamus based on 384,925 hypothalamic cells from publicly available single-cell sequencing datasets.

Gut commensal bacteria and their metabolites can contribute to metabolic diseases. Qiao, Liu et al. reveal that expansion of Parabacteroides merdae attenuates experimental atherosclerosis.

In metabolic studies using rodents, body weight and food intake measurements seem easy to obtain, but several potential pitfalls can lead to erroneous data generation and interpretation. This Comment raises awareness of key conceptual and technical aspects that can increase the quality and reproducibility of this type of data.

Guo et al. show that Cdo1, a taurine-synthesis enzyme, interacts with PPARγ to promote its transactivation of genes encoding the lipases ATGL and HSL, thereby promoting adipose tissue lipolysis and ameliorating diet-induced obesity.

Qiao et al. reveal that a Ganoderma meroterpene derivative can prevent atherosclerosis by increasing the abundance of Parabacteroides merdae in the gut, which in turn will enhance branched-chain amino acid catabolism and lead to cardiometabolic benefits.

Benegiamo et al. identify genetic variants of the mitochondrial supercomplex assembly factor COX7A2L in the skeletal muscle of mice and humans that promote cardiorespiratory fitness.