Lu Qin Ph.D.: 2004－2007 Supervisors: Prof. Zhong Wen-Qin and Wang De-Hua Present affiliation: Beijing 101 middle school E-mail: luqin55@yahoo.com or luqin@ioz.ac.cn Tel.: +86 010 81165067

Thesis
　　Study on photoperiod-responsiveness of energy metabolism, thermogenesis and body mass regulation during different life history periods in Brandt’s Voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii) Research interest: The basis of body mass and energy balance and the QTL mapping of metabolic traits in rodents.

Awards
　　Excellent PhD of the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005-2006

Main findings
　　In Brandt’s voles, postweaning development in body mass and thermogenesis was predominantly influenced by the postweaning photoperiod. Postweaning short photoperiod (SD) voles had lower body mass but higher thermogenic capacity and associated uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) compared with long photoperiod (LD) voles after photoperiod transfer for eight weeks. Meanwhile, the preweaning photoperiod experience can chronically modify the development in thermogenesis capacity (NSTcap) but not in body mass. A positive correlation between NSTcap and UCP1 content further confirmed the role of UCP1 as the molecular basis for thermogenesis. Changes in absolute serum leptin levels were due to the changes in body mass and body fat mass. There were no photoperiod effects on covariate-corrected serum leptin levels, which suggested that the serum leptin levels are not the driving factor of body mass differences. We inferred that the leptin sensitivity may change.
　　In Brandt’s voles, population-average values of aerobic traits were generally consistent among different ages or generations, however, there was no repeatability at the level of individual variation during the ontogeny, which indicated that the aerobic traits of the young were not good indicators for that of later life. At the same time, the coefficient of intraclass correlation for full sibs failed to reach statistical significance, suggesting that heritability of aerobic traits in Brandt’s voles was not high.

Publications

1. Lu Qin, Zhong Wen-Qin and Wang De-Hua. 2007. Effects of photoperiod history on body mass and energy metabolism in Brandt’s voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii). Journal of Experimental Biology. 210: 3838-3847.
2. Lu Qin, Zhong Wen-Qin and Wang De-Hua. 2007. Individual variation and repeatability of the aerobic performance in Brandt’s voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii). Journal of Thermal Biology. 2007.32:413-420.