A potential link between metabolic changes resulting from exercise and gene expression in the brain has been revealed.

Acetate concentration, which is significantly increased in association with energy stresses such as those that occur with diabetes or starvation, is emerging as a novel 'ketone body' with potential as a parameter for evaluating the progression of energy stress.

Glutamatergic neurons lacking the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier show reduced M-type potassium channel activity and hyperexcitability upon intense firing.

Volatile anesthetics impair hepatic tricarboxylic acid cycle function in adult and neonatal mice, with citrate accumulation driving a neonate-specific inhibition of beta-oxidation and ketosis through their increased relative sensitivity to malonyl-CoA.

Glucocorticoid receptor directly regulates the transcriptional activity of peroxisome proliferator-activated alpha (PPARα) before birth in anticipation of the sudden shifts in the postnatal nutrient source and metabolic demands.

Basal ganglia output neurons use the NALCN leak channel to maintain their characteristic tonic firing, and this channel is important for the modulation of firing by metabolic or receptor-mediated signals.

Elephants and fruit bats have evolved large brains even though they have lost a gene that is fundamental to the supply of energy to the brain when glucose is not available.

Animal models reveal that mitochondrial complex I is dispensable for homeostatic functions of the mouse liver.

Threonine promotes sleep via down-regulation of metabotropic GABA transmission in the ellipsoid body R2 neurons that generate homeostatic sleep drive in Drosophila.