Development of novel desiccation and salinity-indusible expression systems

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K15073
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Insect science
• Research Institution: National Agriculture and Food Research Organization
• Principal Investigator: Kikawada Takahiro 国立研究開発法人農業・食品産業技術総合研究機構, 生物機能利用研究部門, 上級研究員 (60414900)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Gusev Oleg 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 予防医療・診断技術開発プログラム・研究プログラム, マネージャー (30711999)
• Research Collaborator: Cornette Richard ; Miyata Yugo ; Sogame Yoichiro ; Tokumoto Shoko
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 遺伝子発現 / プロモーター / 乾燥耐性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Our final goal of this project is to develop a novel heterologous gene expression system based on dry- and salinity-inducible promoters in the anhydrobiotic insect, Polypedilum vanderplanki. In 2016, the promoter region for PvGapdh gene was identified as a novel constitutive promoter, which allowed effectively expressing heterologous proteins, such as GFP, in Pv11 cells, a cultured cell line derived from the anhydrobiotic insect. In 2017, we found a highly conserved motif (TCTAGAA) in the promoter regions for several desiccation-inducible genes in the insect, which motif was corresponded with Drosophila’s heat shock element (HSE). RNAi experiments demonstrated that PvHSF1, a homolog for the HSE-binding protein in the anhydrobiotic insect, could be involved in induction of the extreme desiccation tolerance in Pv11 cells.

Free Research Field

極限環境生物学