2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Beyond single-molecule physiology : Letting molecular machines work by soft force
| Project/Area Number |
21000011
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Review Section |
Biological Sciences
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
ISHIWATA Shin'ichi 早稲田大学, 理工学術院, 教授 (10130866)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2009 – 2014
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| Keywords | たんぱく質分子機械 / エネルギー変換 / 光学顕微鏡 / 一分子観察・操作 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
A powerful means for understanding the mechanism of a protein molecular machine is single-molecule physiology where one directly watches the behaviors of individual molecules under a microscope. One may apply a force to learn from the response of the machine, but, in most cases so far, the force was in an impeding direction. Here, we propose to reach a better understanding by applying an external force to a machine “to let it work” properly. With this and other approaches we have been able to elucidate the mechanism of ATP synthesis effected by reverse rotation of a rotary molecular motor, and various mechanistic aspects of rotary and linear molecular motors, protein machines that work on DNA, and the supramolecular machinery for cell division.
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| Free Research Field |
生物物理学
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