Mechanism Sheds Light on How the Brain Adapts to Stress

According to an article from ScienceDaily, Dr. Gil Levkowitz and his colleagues from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have recently published findings exploring the mechanism of corticotropin-releasing-hormone gene (CRH).  CRH is a hormone which is released in response to stressful stimuli that provoke a 'fight-or-flight' mechanism in biological animals.  Inappropriate metabolic regulation of CRH has been shown to be correlated with multiple human psychiatric disorders.

What I found very interesting about this article is the scientists' methodology in investigating general as well as specific gene regulation.  The molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression, especially when focusing on one specific gene such as CRH, has largely remained not fully understood.  Dr. Lekowitz and his colleagues discovered that 'the protein Orthopedia (Otp), which is expressed in the parts of the brain known to be responsible for the stress response, modulated CRH gene expression.'   Here is the part I found interesting part:  Otp regulates CRH gene expression not by well-documented methods such acting as a protein transcription factor or regulating acetylation of the chromosome, but by regulating the production of two different receptors on the neuron's surface which are responsible for the intracellular signaling that controls CRH production.  This discovery that a protein which functions in gene regulation can have such a commanding effect on the phenotype of an individual who might otherwise be normal wild type for the gene in question (CRH) is almost analogous to epistatic effect, and truly something to think about when considering genetics, gene regulation, and Mendellian hereditary patterns.