| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,420,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,020,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Olfaction is essential for the survival of many animals. The ability to distinguish different odors depends on the number and type of olfactory receptors (ORs) present in each organism’s genome. In this project, we examined the OR genes encoded in 13 mammalian species’ genomes and found that African elephants have a surprisingly large number of OR genes, with approximately 2,000. This number is by far the largest among ever characterized. We also invented a novel bioinformatic method to trace the evolutionary trajectories of individual OR genes, and examined their duplications and losses in each species. We then discovered three OR genes that are evolutionarily stable for 100 million years without any duplications and losses and with very little change in sequence. Suggestively, these receptors would have physiologically important functions common to every mammal beyond the detection of odors.
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