Development of a tool for measuring the activity of core promoters using animal early embryos

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14447
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Molecular biology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Satou Yutaka 京都大学, 理学研究科, 准教授 (40314174)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 転写 / ホヤ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Transcription in eukaryotic cells requires core promoters, to which RNA polymerase II binds. The purpose of the present study was to test core promoter activities directly using reporter genes. In embryos of an invertebrate chordate, Ciona intestinalis, transcription for the zygotic genome is suppressed in early embryos after fertilization. Nevertheless, reporter constructs introduced immediately after fertilization were expressed, and no enhancer elements were required for this expression. However, we observed a large deviation in the reporter assays among multiple independent experiments. Therefore we studied how transcription is suppressed in early ascidian embryos. As in embryos of other animals, transcription is suppressed by a mechanism dependent on cell cycle number and a mechanism dependent on the absolute time after fertilization. We obtained evidence that strongly suggested that the large deviation is due to the former mechanism.

Free Research Field

発生生物学