| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,680,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,080,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Connectin is an elastic protein in vertebrate striated muscle. Invertebrates also possess various connectin-like proteins, one of which is a connectin-like 4000 kDa protein that is present in the obliquely striated muscle of Annelida. We have determined the nucleotide sequence of the gene which encodes a connectin-like 4000 kDa protein in the body wall muscle of Neanthes sp. We discovered a sequence in which a unit of 47 amino acids was repeated 11 times. After preparing the recombinant protein, we performed analytical ultracentrifugation and measured CD spectrum to estimate its secondary structure content. The sedimentation velocity experiment revealed that the protein had an extremely asymmetric shape, and 48% of the whole structure assumed beta-structure. It was thus demonstrated that this protein could cover a longer distance than other ordinary proteins with the same size.
The fact that the connectin-like 4000 kDa protein of the obliquely striated muscle of Annelida has a distinct structure with the 47-amino acid repeat sequence may be related to the resting length of a sarcomere in the Annelida obliquely striated muscle, which is about twice as long as that in the vertebrate striated muscle.
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