A study on the component of glue secreted by salamanders and its adaptive evolution

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K16214
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 45030:Biodiversity and systematics-related
• Research Institution: Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Kakehashi Ryosuke 長浜バイオ大学, バイオサイエンス学部, プロジェクト特任助教 (50812004)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: サンショウウオ / RNA-seq / 発現量解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I investigated the function and the genes of glue secreted from the tail of salamanders (Family Salamandridae) distributed in Japan. I confirmed that all the 17 species I examined have glue by using an artificial secretion method. Using 9 species of them, the adhesive strength was measured, resulted in different adhesive strength among species. The adhesive strength tends to be close among closely related species. I also determined mRNA sequences from the tail of salamanders, which contain glue, and compared them with those from the other part. Combined with the mass spectrometry of glue, I narrowed the candidate mRNA sequences of glue to 10.

Free Research Field

多様性生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では糊の指標の一つとして接着強度を測定し、近縁な種ほど接着強度が近い傾向があることがわかった。これは糊の機能を明らかにする上で重要なデータである。また、糊自身が新たな生体材料になる可能性がある。加えて、両生類の皮膚には抗菌ペプチドや抗ウィルス分子が含まれることが多い。このため、本研究で行ったサンショウウオ類の皮膚組織に含まれるmRNA配列の解析から、今後、新たな有用生理活性物質が単離される可能性がある。