# Development and genetics of rapid neuroendocrine stress response

> **NIH NIH R01** · MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER · 2021 · $427,818

## Abstract

Abstract
Intense acute stress or prolonged stress that overwhelms the body's stress response (SR) system is detrimental
to an organism's health and associated with the onset or aggravation of a broad spectrum of health outcomes,
including psychiatric disorders. To devise effective therapeutic strategies for stress-aggravated disorders, it is
essential to advance our understanding regarding the pathways and genes that regulate our body's response
to stress. The prevailing thought is that glucocorticoids, like cortisol or corticosterone, primarily act through
genomic actions of their cognate receptors, mineralocorticoid (MR) and glucocorticoid receptors (GR), by
effecting transcription. However, appreciation of the role glucocorticoids play in rapid non-genomic
responses has led to a push to better understand how these non-genomic responses contribute to stress
responses, overall stress system regulation, and contributions to health and disease. Identifying and studying
gene products that regulate or modify rapid, non-genomic stress responses will significantly impact our understanding of
how SR regulation contributes to health, potentially providing new diagnostics and therapeutics to protect against or
treat disease. Zebrafish are genetically tractable vertebrates with conserved SR signaling pathways–a
combination of properties that make them an ideal model for discovering genetic modifiers of vertebrate-
specific SR signaling. In this proposal we intend to clarify the contribution of key regulators of SR signaling,
looking at their role in rapid non-genomic signaling as well as their potential to influence development of the
SR in vertebrates. We will also follow up on the discovery of novel genes linked to rapid stress responsive
behaviors and use a unique resource of zebrafish mutants to discover more genes that influence the vertebrate
SR.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10140392
- **Project number:** 5R01GM134732-03
- **Recipient organization:** MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** KARL J CLARK
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $427,818
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10140392

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10140392, Development and genetics of rapid neuroendocrine stress response (5R01GM134732-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10140392. Licensed CC0.

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