Research - Gebrehaweria K Reda

Mechanism of life-history

My research focuses on molecular mechanisms linking nutritional cues with fitness traits like growth, reproduction, immunity, resource allocation, and aging. Nutritional limitation is a common phenomenon in nature that leads to trade-offs among processes competing for limited resources. When food is abundant, animals prefer to allocate more resources towards current reproduction, or while maintaining somatic functions. The bias toward reproductive investment may be accompanied by physiological costs, including oxidative stress and reduced immune potential, which in turn affects future reproductive performance and the health span. Under limited resource, this dynamic shifts when organisms must divert energy from reproduction to somatic maintenance. Different species, different sexes, at different age, season and physiological determine the way resources allocated into competing traits. I am studying the points of trade-offs in relation to a gradient dietary availability. We are mainly interested on the mechanisms mediating this process.

The mTOR pathway

One such signalling pathway, the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), is proposed to underpin a form of adaptive plasticity when individuals encounter constraints in their energy budget. This pathway comprehends a series of cross-talking genes at different stages of cellular functioning. While the pathway is evolutionarily conserved, it exhibits a significant differences among species in response to their life conditions. The pathway is proposed to play a magnificent role in metabolic stress. To study this we are using nutritional gradients, unpredictabilities, in ovo and in vivo nutrients and inhibitors injections and have found promising results in birds. I am interested in understanding how this pathway mediates trade-offs in response to environmental variability.