| Budget Amount *help |
¥19,370,000 (Direct Cost: ¥14,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,470,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥6,110,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,410,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥6,110,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,410,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥7,150,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,650,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The domestic cat excretes cauxin with carboxylesterase activity as a major urinary protein. Our previous studies demonstrated that cauxin hydrolyzes 3-methylbutanol-cysteinylglycine and produces glycine and felinine, a cat-specific amino acid. However little is known whether cauxin has functions other than peptidase in the urine. In this study, we aimed to produce cauxin-knocking our cats to examine the functions of cauxin in cats.
We used transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN) that are restriction enzymes to cut specific sequences of cauxin exon 1 and 2. Our analysis indicated that TALENs targeting exon 2 could destroy the cauxin gene in cat kidney cultured cells. On the other hand, we also found that felinine metabolites are excreted into the urine of humans, mice, and dogs that excrete no cauxin. The results suggest that cauxin excretion is necessary to excrete free felinine that is decomposed to volatile compounds for scent communication.
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