Knock down of NMUR2 in the PVN enhances preference for dietary fat but not sucrose. A, Preference for solutions containing 0.25%, 0.5%, or 1.0% sucrose (w/v) relative to water alone. shNMUR2PVN rats were not significantly different from shCTRLPVN rats at any concentration. B, Preference score for diet containing 20% fat by calories verses diet containing 12.5% fat by calories when both diets are presented simultaneously. Over a 48 hour period, shNMUR2PVN rats (n=9; gray bars) had a stronger preference for the higher-fat diet than controls (n=7; white bars) (* p<0.05 by one-tailed t-test). C, The total intake of the 20% fat diet and the 12.5% fat diet during the fat preference assay. shNMUR2PVN rats (gray bars) consumed significantly more of the 20% fat diet than controls (white bars) (** p<0.01 verses shCTRLPVN intake of 20% diet by AVOVA followed by Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons). Both groups of rats consumed significantly more of the 20% diet than the 12.5% diet, significance not denoted. All error bars represent the standard error of the mean.