January 14, 2016

Article Discussion

"Adaptive Responses to Feeding in Burmese Pythons: Pay Before Pumping" (1995)

• Small Intestine mass doubled and other organ masses also increased 1-3 days post-feeding.
• Post-feeding effects also includes upregulation of intestinal uptake transporters and hydrolytic enzymes.
• The mucosal layer of the small intestine experiences greater increase in mass as compared to the serosa.

"A Vertebrate Model of Extreme Physiological Regulation" (1998)

• Snake post-prandial responses are adaptive rather than phylogenetic.
• We need to investigate the sglt-1 gene.

Questions to Consider:

• Transport Mechanism:
  • Is there an increase in transcription?
  • Is there a hormonal response?
  • Are there post-translational modifications?

• Can we find an ortholog and trace it back to the Burmese Python?
• Can we find intestinal genes involved in housekeeping, cell-proliferation, or up-take?
• How will our results be affected if we only sampled serosa from the Small Intestine?
• How does the brush-border get bigger?

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References

• Secor, Stephen M., and Diamond, Jared. “Adaptive Responses to Feeding in Burmese Pythons: Pay Before Pumping.” The Journal of Experimental Biology. 198 (1995): 1313-1325.

Secor and Diamond (1995)

• Secor, Stephen M., and Diamond, Jared. “A vertebrate model of extreme physiological regulation.” Nature. 395 (1998): 659-662.

Secor and Diamond (1998)