| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
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| Research Abstract |
ES cells are known to be pluripotent, that is, ES cells can be differentiated to all kind of tissues or cell types. This pluripotency is sustained by the function of transcription factor Oct-3 which belongs to be the member of the octamer factor. In ES cells three types of octamer factors, i. e. , Oct-3, 0ct-6, and Oct-1 are expressed. However, Only Oct-3 can sustain the pluripotent state. This raises the question what is the unique trait of Oct-3 to maintain the ES cell pluripotency
In order to resolve the question described above, I create the chimera proteins of Oct-3 and Oct-6 and I try to identify the region(s) which is essential for Oct-3 to maintain the ES cell pluripotency. To estimate the function of chimera protein to sustain the ES cell pluripotency, the chimera proteins are introduced into the Oct-3 deleted ES cells and if the ES cell can be maintained in an undifferentiated state, I conclude that this chimera protein can function in place of Oct-3 in ES cells. Using this strategy. I identified that both the linker portion and the POU specific domain alpha-helix 1 of DNA binding domain, i. e. , POU-domain are enough for the Oct-3 function. And the most importantly, this unique function of Oct-3 to maintain the ES cell pluripotency is determined by the unique DNA binding specificity of Oct-3
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