Project/Area Number |
09833005
|
Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
Section | 一般 |
Research Field |
光生物学
|
Research Institution | Himeji Institute of Technology |
Principal Investigator |
IWASA Tatsuo Himeji Institute of Technology, Faculty of Science, Associate Professor, 理学部, 助教授 (00133926)
|
Project Period (FY) |
1997 – 1998
|
Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 1998)
|
Budget Amount *help |
¥2,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,700,000)
Fiscal Year 1998: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Fiscal Year 1997: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
|
Keywords | Gprotein / Rhodopsin / Molecular Evolution / Molecular Biology / Invertebrate / Photoreception / Signal Transduction / 光受容 / Gタンパク質共役受容体 |
Research Abstract |
In order to clearify the evoulutional relationship among the photoreception systems of the animal, we investigated the photoreceptor pigment and the photo-signaltransducing protein of several dififerent species, especially lower invertebrate such as flatworm and jellyfish. The goat of this research project is to understand the evolutional pathway of the visual system of animals. The results were as follows : 1) The full length opsin gene of jellyfish was cloned and sequenced. The anti-serum against the C-teminal synthetic peptides of the deduced sequence was obtained from mice. It was confirmed by northern blot analysis and immuno-histochmical studies with light and electron microscope that the gene was exclusively expressed in the eye. 2) From the planariarn eye, Gq and Go class G protein alpha subunit gene were cloned. Insitu hybridization analysis revealed that Gq class of G protein was highly expressed in the planarian eye. The results were also confirmed by the immunohistochemical studies with the Gq-specific antiserum. Based on the above results, it can be safely said that in the planarian visual system rhodopsin couples with Gq class G protein, indicating that the coupling between rhodopsin and Gq was very old. 3) The opsin gene was cloned from the brain and ocellus (stemma) of Bombyx larva. The nucleotide sequence was the same in both cDNA clones from brain and that from ocellus, indicating that the same opsin protein was used in the both organs. The antiserum against the C-terminal peptide synthesized according to the nucleotide sequence of the cDNA clone crossreacted with the ocellus of Bombyx larva.
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