Establishment of Biothermology which discusses heat and temperature in molecular, cellular and evolutionary aspects

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K20303
• Project/Area Number (Other): 17H06258 (2017-2019)
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Pioneering)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund (2020); Single-year Grants (2017-2019)
• Research Field: Biology of Cells to Organisms, and related fields
• Research Institution: National Institute for Basic Biology
• Principal Investigator: Kamei Yasuhiro 基礎生物学研究所, 超階層生物学センター, RMC教授 (70372563)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-06-30 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 温度 / 熱 / イメージング / 温度計測 / 局所加熱 / 熱ショック応答 / タンパク質 / 核酸

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Temperature (heat) is an ambiguous physical quantity in life science, and the purpose of this project is to understand temperature in life. The nucleus has a higher temperature than the cytoplasm, which leads to the following questions: (1) How is this temperature difference created by suppressing thermal diffusion? (2) What is the purpose of creating this temperature difference? For (1), we developed a novel fluorescent protein probe for temperature measurement and measured the thermal conductivity of the cytoplasm to understand the behavior of heat in the cell. For (2), we focused on the heat shock factor (HSF) and generated medaka KO to investigate the difference in degrees of latitude between proteins and nucleic acids with respect to temperature. Subsequently, we cloned HSF1s from various species, including flatfish, and are now analyzing heat properties.

Free Research Field

基礎生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

生命にとっての温度・熱は、これまであまり扱われておらず、一方で、細胞内での熱は化学反応や、生体物質の安定性、分子認識（結合）に大きく影響する物理量である。細胞のような秩序あるミクロの世界における熱の振る舞いを理解することは、生物学のみならず物理・科学の分野における温度の再考や、応用に繋がる可能性を秘めている。社会的には、生物の現象をミミックすることで熱の効率的な利用方法への新たな可能性が生れるかもしれない。