| Project/Area Number |
21200010
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research a proposed research project)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Neurophysiology and muscle physiology
Functional biochemistry
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
HIROTA Junji 東京工業大学, バイオ研究基盤支援総合センター, 准教授 (60405339)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2009 – 2011
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2011)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥30,940,000 (Direct Cost: ¥23,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥7,140,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥10,010,000 (Direct Cost: ¥7,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,310,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥10,010,000 (Direct Cost: ¥7,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,310,000)
Fiscal Year 2009: ¥10,920,000 (Direct Cost: ¥8,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,520,000)
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| Keywords | 視覚 / 聴覚 / 神経科学 / 生理活性 / 遺伝子 / 進化 / 嗅覚 / 生理活性物質 / 嗅覚受容体 / 新規機能性 |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The vertebrate olfactory system recognizes millions of environmental chemicals and perceives them as odors. Olfactory sensory neurons, the primary sensory neurons in the olfactory system, initiate the perception process by detecting odorants, which interact with odorant receptors (ORs). ORs belong to the largest gene superfamily present in any genome analyzed so far. OR genes are classified into two classes. Class I ORs, which are fish-like and phylogenetically more ancient receptors bind aqueous odorant molecules. The other type is called class II ORs, which are specific to terrestrial animals seem to bind volatile odorant molecules. Although class I ORs in terrestrial mammals had been considered as a relic of evolution from fish to terrestrial, recent studies have demonstrated that intact and functional genes still remain, suggesting that class I Ors in terrestrial mammals might have important physiological functions. In this study, we investigated function of class I Ors in terrestrial mammals to identify aqueous odorous molecules. We focused on amniotic fluid (AF) as source for aqueous odorants. AF is maternal fluid in uterus protecting embryo that is the only aquatic environment for terrestrial mammals. We demonstrated that AF contains some aqueous odor molecules through mouse behavior analyses, histochemical and physiological studies. In addition, we established transgenic lines which enable to visualize class I OR transgene expression and OSN axonal projections, providing the first experimental evidence of a cis-acting element for a class I OR gene. This transgenic mice can be useful tool not only for screening ligands of class I OR but also for study on class I OR gene regulation.
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