| Budget Amount *help |
¥23,920,000 (Direct Cost: ¥18,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥5,520,000)
Fiscal Year 2017: ¥7,670,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,770,000)
Fiscal Year 2016: ¥7,670,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,770,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥3,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥780,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥5,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,200,000)
|
|---|
| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The heat-resistance ascospores of the filamentous fungi Neurospora break their semi-permanent dormancy by heat shock. The mechanisms of dormant maintenance, heat activation and their relationship, however, remain enigmatic. Taking advantage of the Neurospora knockout collection, we isolated mutants spontaneously germinating without heat shock, named ascospore sleepless-1 and -2 (as-1 and as-2). We showed that AS-1 controls an ascospore-specific MAPK pathway and mutants lacking the pathway lose ascospore dormancy. We also identified a smoke-activated G protein signaling by isolating mutants insensitive to smoke and revealed that AS-2 negatively regulated the signaling. We confirmed that smoke stimuli via the G protein signaling regulates the tight threshold temperature of dormant break in a dose-dependent manner. We conclude that ascospore dormancy break by heat and smoke is finely controlled by at least two major pathways in Neurospora.
|
| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
アカパンカビ子嚢胞子の驚異的な特殊能力は、怪奇現象として歴史を賑わしている。例えば、1842年にフランス軍のパン工場で大発生したアカパンカビの大調査が歴史に記されている。日本でも関東大震災のときの大火災後に、突如出現したオレンジ色の粉（アカパンカビ）が幻想的に東京中に舞い、人々を魅了させた（1925年, 日本植物病理學會報, 1巻6号, p15-19）。本研究課題は、歴史に刻まれたアカパンカビによる怪奇現象を分子レベルで謎解く学術的意義がある。また、生物の驚異的な特殊能力の応用は様々な形で人類の発展に貢献してきたが、このアカパンカビの特殊能力の応用もイノベーションにつながることが期待できる。
|
