2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Characterizing the roles of evolutionarily 'young' genes in development
Project/Area Number |
17K07426
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
Section | 一般 |
Research Field |
Developmental biology
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Research Institution | Institute of Physical and Chemical Research |
Principal Investigator |
KURAKU Shigehiro 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 生命機能科学研究センター, チームリーダー (40391940)
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Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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Keywords | 若い遺伝子 / ゲノム情報 / 発生プログラム |
Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Typical life science studies focus on evolutionarily 'old' genes that are conserved throughout diverse species, because analyzing homologs of already known genes has been a mainstream of studies. To overcome that bias, the present study has focused to characterize evolutionarily 'young' genes that arose relatively recently (within 100 million years) whose homolog does not exist in many other species. As a result, the original workflow designed under this purpose identified a number of candidates that have nucleotide DNA sequences characteristic of protein-coding genes, evidence of transcription, and molecular evolutionary attributes of translation.These candidates include a considerable proportion with tissue-species expression during embryogenesis, which emphasizes the involvement of 'young' genes in developmental processes that have been regarded as conservative and their importance in addressing cross-species differences in developmental regulation.
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Free Research Field |
発生生物学、分子進化学、ゲノム情報学
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Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
本課題の遂行により、特定の種だけが持つ遺伝子に新たに光を当てるとともに、その特徴づけのための解析技術基盤を築き上げることができた。種間の共通点に目が行きがちだった比較ゲノミクスに新たな流れを創ることと期待される。伝統的な実験動物以外の生物についての解析をシームレスに行うことも本課題の重点であった。そのために行った爬虫類および軟骨魚類の全ゲノム解析を一流国際誌にて報告し、複数の国際会議にて講演してきた。その一部については大手メディアにも科学記事として取り上げられ、一般社会へ発信した。また得られた配列情報は公共リソースとして世界中の研究者が利用できる状態にある。
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