2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The origin and diversification of human temperature sensory receptors.
| Project/Area Number |
17570004
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Genetics/Genome dynamics
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| Research Institution | The Graduate University for Advanced Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
SATTA Yoko The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Department of Biosystems Science, Professor, 先導科学研究科, 教授 (20222010)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2006
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| Keywords | sensory receptors / evolution physiology / adaptation to environment / human evolution / nucleotide diversity / amino acid substitutions / functional divergence / environment in habitats |
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| Research Abstract |
Animals sense ambient physico-chemical fluctuations through receptors in their sensory systems. The temperature sensors are capable of detecting and discriminating stimuli over a broad spectrum of temperatures. These sensors are members of three subfamilies (TRP V, TRPM and TRPA) of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family. In this project, there are two aims : 1) To infer the molecular evolution of these temperature receptors and 2) to clarify the origin of the diversity among human thermo-sensory receptors.
1)Molecular evolution of temperature receptors in vertebrates : A larger number of TRP paralogs have been found in terrestrial animal genomes than in the fish genome, reflecting different extent of temperature fluctuations in environments. In mammals, there are nine thermo-sensory receptor genes, of which four (TRPV1'4) are responsible for sensing either warm or hot. Phylogenetic studies of TRPV1-.4 genes in vertebrates have revealed excessive amino acid substitutions in the stem lineage of birds and mammals for each TRPV, suggesting either accelerated substitution rates or frequent occurrences of convergent evolution. These substitutions may be related to the development of body temperature controlling system in warm-blooded animals.
2)The origin of the diversity among human thermo-sensory receptors : In NCBI record, there is a record of TRPV1 pseudogene. To examine the distribution of this pseudogene over the world, I sequenced approximately 5kb region encompassing exon9 to 11 encoding the 6 trans-membrane region of TRPV1 from 68 individuals from 18 different ethnic groups. However, there is no example o pseudogene in our sample. Other population genetics analyses are progressing and the result will be submitted to an international journal within 2007.
3)In addition to the above results, a review (in Japanese) about a role of sensory receptors in the human evolution has been published.
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Research Products
(2 results)
