Challenging research for functional analyses of piRNA/PIWI in mammalian female germ cells

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23658221
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Applied animal science
Research Institution	The University of Tokyo
Principal Investigator	NAITO Kunihiko 東京大学, 農学生命科学研究科, 教授 (20188858)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2012
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2012)
Budget Amount *help	¥4,030,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥930,000) Fiscal Year 2011: ¥4,030,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥930,000)
Keywords	繁殖 / 卵成熟 / PIWI / piRNA / 応用動物 / 畜産学
Research Abstract	At least two PIWI mRNA, PIWIL1 and PIWIL2, are present in porcine oocytes and the inhibition of these protein expression results in the meiotic resumption of oocytes under a high cAMP concentration, suggesting the physiological involvement of PIWI in the meiotic arrest of porcine ovarian oocytes. This PIWI function is mediated by the inhibition of cyclin B accumulation and might affect on the APC function, which works on the cyclin B degradation, as no differences are detected in the translational regulations, such as cyclin B mRNA level, Aurora A and CPEB status.