| Project/Area Number |
12460001
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Breeding science
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| Research Institution | THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO |
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Principal Investigator |
TSUTSUMI Nobuhiro THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO, The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Professor (00202185)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
YOSHIBA Yoshu 株式会社日立製作所, Hitachi Ltd., Life Sci.Res.Center., Project Leader (researcher)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2000 – 2002
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2002)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥2,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,700,000)
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| Keywords | stromule / ribosomal protein / GFP / Kaede / protein transport / mitochondria / 葉緑体 / rpl36 / トランジットペプチド / 水平伝播 / rpl16 |
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| Research Abstract |
In order to visualize the shapes of plastids in a living cell, a fusion gene of GFP with the transit peptide of rice chloroplast ribosomal protein L12-1 (cpTP-GFP) was introduced into rice epidermal cells by the particle bombardment method. Confocal laser scanning microscopy showed that the GFP fluorescence was localized in the plastids.
The cpTP-GFP signals were matched specially with the signals of chlorophyll autofluorescence. In addition, there were some cells that had plastids with various lengths of protuberances without chlorophyll, i.e., "stromules". In a few cells, stromules connected almost all the plastids in a cell, appearing as a pan-cytoplasmic network. One plausible function of stromule connections is to exchange plastid components such as proteins. This would unify or coordinate all of the plastids in a cell and, by lessening the demands on the nucleus, contribute to the productivity of the cell.
To determine whether fusion of plastids mediated by stromules occurs, we labeled plastids in onion epidermal cells with a plastid-targeted fluorescent protein (Kaede) and then altered the fluorescence of some of the plastids within a cell from green to red. No transition to a uniform color (yellow) indicating the fusion of plastids was observed, even two days after the photo-conversion.
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