Newcastle University

Research Interests

Research Interests

My research interests are centred on the neural and endocrine mechanisms that underpin feeding behaviour, metabolism and reproduction in vertebrates. I am particularly interested in how vertebrates, particularly birds, adjust their behaviour and physiology to environmental seasonality such as changes in photoperiod. I use a comparative, multi-disciplinary, approach that combines and integrates the genetic and molecular to the ecological and behavioural levels of biological organisation. In this way, I aim to gain insight into fundamental mechanisms regulating behaviour and physiology from the perspective of the whole animal. Most recently, my research has involved the use of functional genomic technologies, including DNA microarrays, to identify genes in the brain involved in the control of seasonal reproduction, and I have combined this with neurobiological approaches to characterise and monitor activity of neuroendocrine pathways.

Selected Publications

Graham G, Sharp PJ, Li Q, Wilson PW, Talbot RT, Downing A, Boswell T, HSP90B1, a thyroid hormone-responsive heat shock protein involved in photoperiodic signaling, Brain Research Bulletin, in press.

Holberton RL, Boswell T, Hunter MJ, Circulating prolactin and corticosterone concentrations during the development of migratory condition in the dark-eyed junco, Junco hyemalis, General & Comparative Endocrinology, 155, 641-649, 2008

Boswell T, Dunn IC, Wilson PW, Joseph N, Burt DW, Sharp PJ, Identification of a non-mammalian leptin-like gene: characterization and expression in the tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum), General & Comparative Endocrinology, 146, 157-166, 2006

Boswell T, Takeuchi S, Recent developments in our understanding of the avian melanocortin system: its involvement in the regulation of pigmentation and energy homeostasis, Peptides 26:1733-1743, 2005

Boswell T, Regulation of energy balance in birds by the neuroendocrine hypothalamus, Journal of Poultry Science 42:161-181, 2005

Phillips-Singh D, Li Q, Takeuchi S, Ohkubo T, Sharp PJ, Boswell T, Fasting differentially regulates expression of agouti-related peptide, pro-opiomelanocortin, prepro-orexin and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide mRNAs in the hypothalamus of Japanese quail, Cell & Tissue Research 313:217-225, 2003

Ohkubo T, Boswell T, Lumineau S, Molecular cloning of chicken prepro-orexin cDNA and preferential expression in the chicken hypothalamus, Biochimica Biophysica Acta 1577:476-480, 2002

Boswell T, Li Q, Takeuchi S, Neurons expressing neuropeptide Y mRNA in the infundibular hypothalamus of Japanese quail are activated by fasting and co-express agouti-related protein mRNA, Molecular Brain Research 100:31-42, 2002

Lundell I, Boswell T, Larhammar D, Chicken Neuropeptide Y–family receptor Y4: a receptor with equal affinity for pancreatic polypeptide, neuropeptide Y and peptide YY, Journal of Molecular Endocrinology 28:225-235, 2002

• Boswell T. Food intake: behavioral endocrinology. In: Breed, M.D., Moore, J, ed. Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior. Oxford, UK: Academic Press, 2010, pp.738-743.
• Boswell T. Molecular aspects of leptin in the chicken. In: Paolucci, M, ed. Leptin in non-mammalian vertebrates. Kerala, India: Transworld Research Network, 2010, pp.79-93.
• Graham G, Sharp PJ, Li Q, Wilson PW, Talbot RT, Downing A, Boswell T. HSP90B1, a thyroid hormone-responsive heat shock protein gene involved in photoperiodic signaling. Brain Research Bulletin 2009, 79(3-4), 201-207.