Budget Amount *help |
¥5,590,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,290,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥2,990,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥690,000)
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Research Abstract |
The regulation of body fluid composition and cellular and tissue osmolality through solute and water transport is fundamental for all terrestrial insects. Water transport across the plasma membrane is mediated through a water channel, called aquaporin (AQP), which regulates rapid water fluxes between cellular and tissue compartments. Advances in the functional characterization of AQPs in the vectorial fluid transport of liquid-feeding insects have led to the identification of three distinct AQPs in the digestive and excretory tissue of the silkworm, Bombyx mori. Evidence that several isoforms of AQP occur in one insect species is accumulating steadily. We have explored the physiological roles of the respective type of Bombyx AQP in other insect species such as the blowfly, the chafer larva and a termite. The molecular functional characterization of each AQP protein were explored to understand the physiological substrate (water only or further non-electrolyte solute) in each insect.
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