Elucidating molecular mechanism of phytochrome-regulated alternative promoter selection

• Project/Area Number: 18H04001
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 44:Biology at cellular to organismal levels, and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyoto University (2020-2021); Kyushu University (2018-2019)
• Principal Investigator: Matsushita Tomonao 京都大学, 理学研究科, 教授 (20464399)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2021)
• Budget Amount: ¥44,070,000 (Direct Cost: ¥33,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥10,170,000); Fiscal Year 2021: ¥2,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥600,000); Fiscal Year 2020: ¥13,650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥10,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,150,000); Fiscal Year 2019: ¥13,650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥10,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,150,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥14,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥10,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,270,000)
• Keywords: 転写開始点 / フィトクロム / 遺伝子発現制御 / 植物 / 光受容体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Phytochrome, a major photoreceptor of plants, is known to regulate several transcription factors to induce genome-wide changes in mRNA levels of the target genes. Recently, however, our group has found that phytochrome also directly induce the selection of alternative promoters in more than 2,000 genes, therefore contributing to diversification of the proteome in Arabidopsis. In this work, in order to unravel the molecular mechanism of alternative promoter selection by phytochrome, we identified several crucial factors involved in this regulatory mechanism.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

同規模の転写開始点変化は、フィトクロムシグナルに限らず、ありとあらゆる事象に伴って、真核生物において共通の分子機構で起こるものである可能性が高いと考えられるため、本研究によって明らかとなったその分子機構は、1つの遺伝子から機能の異なる複数のタンパク質を生み出す普遍的な仕組みを世界に先駆けて明らかにすることとなり、生物学上の大きな進歩となることは間違いない。また、本基礎研究の成果は、「遺伝子発現制御」という一般的な概念に新たな次元をもたらすことで、将来的には教科書に記載されるなどして、科学的啓発という観点から社会・国民に広く還元されるものと考えられる。