Elucidation of a novel fatty acid transport system into mitochondria

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14476
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Functional biochemistry
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Umeda Masato 京都大学, 工学研究科, 教授 (10185069)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): NAGAO Kohjiro 京都大学, 大学院工学研究科, 助教 (40587325) ; JUNI Naoto 京都大学, 大学院工学研究科, 研究員 (90572199)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 脂質 / 脂肪酸 / ミトコンドリア / エネルギー代謝 / 筋肉

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Insects are the most abundant and diversified animal species on earth. Although the great diversity of form and function displayed by the insect is responsible for their superior adaptability to the changes in environmental conditions, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Actively flying insects achieve the highest rates of energy metabolism known in the Animal Kingdom. However, the metabolic pathway that meets such a high-energy demand is not well understood. Here we demonstrate that fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster efficiently oxidizes fatty acids in the absence of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1) that is indispensable for transporting long-chain fatty acids into mitochondria in mammalian cells. Genetic screen using cpt1-depleted Drosophila identified the five candidate genes that surrogated the CPT1-mediated fatty acid transport into mitochondria.

Free Research Field

生化学