| Budget Amount *help |
¥5,460,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,260,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Zinc ion is an essential element acting as a cofactor in more than 300 enzymes. However, high concentrations of Zn2+ are lethal for the cells. Thermophilic cyanobacterium, Thermosynechococcus elongatus, revealed higher resistance for Zn and Cd compared to other bacteria. In this study, we found that heavy-metal binding protein, metallothionein, in T. elongatus makes pentamer binding 50 atoms of Zn2+. Thus formation of multimer bound many Zn must be the reason of resistance to high concentration of Zn. Furthermore, we tried to analyse the molecular structure of this metallothionein by X-ray crystal structure. Although we obtained many crystals, the resolution was not high enough to know the molecular structure. Now, we are still working on cristallization for better resolution.
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