Elucidation of cell proliferation control mechanism and its physiological function by iron metabolism

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K15810
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 38060:Applied molecular and cellular biology-related
• Research Institution: Kumamoto University
• Principal Investigator: Yamauchi Takayoshi 熊本大学, 大学院生命科学研究部(医), 助教 (60747624)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞増殖 / 鉄代謝 / ユビキチン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this project is to obtain clues to the molecular mechanism by which fluctuations in intracellular iron concentration control cell proliferation. At first, (1) “An FBXL5 iron reporter cell line” was established to reflect the increase/decrease in intracellular iron concentration in the fluorescence intensity, and (2) it was subjected to genetic screening using a CRISPR library. From the list of novel genes obtained from the screening analysis results, there were no known iron metabolism-related factors that are expected to be in the top and bottom 5%, respectively, suggesting various other conditions need to be examined. However, it is considered that the candidate gene obtained in this experiment is worth investigating at the cellular level in the future as a novel iron metabolism-related growth regulator.

Free Research Field

応用分子細胞生物学関連

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究成果により、これまでに明らかとなっていなかった細胞増殖能の変化に関与する鉄代謝関連因子の候補が得られた。今後、これらの候補因子の妥当性が確かめられれば、細胞内鉄の非可逆的な増減からくる細胞増殖制御機構を既存の因子との関連性を含めて解析することが可能となる。また、同分子機構が関与する癌や神経疾患、鉄欠乏性貧血などの病態との関連についての手がかりが得られることが期待される。また、FBXL5鉄レポーター細胞株や作成過程で使用された分子生物学的知見を別の種類のスクリーニングやライブラリーに適用していくことで、鉄代謝制御機構の更なる解析の展開も想定される。