Organ function compensation and elucidation of its mechanism

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K19265
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 44:Biology at cellular to organismal levels, and related fields
• Research Institution: Nara Institute of Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Matsui Takaaki 奈良先端科学技術大学院大学, 先端科学技術研究科, 准教授 (60403333)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 器官形成 / 機能獲得 / 機能調節 / ゼブラフィッシュ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The number of cells and cell size determines the organ size of multicellular organisms. When cell number decreases due to genetic or other abnormalities, remaining cells enlarge and the organ size returns to normal. However, I analyzed the mechanism of size control of Kupffer's vesicle (KV) that regulates left-right asymmetry in zebrafish. I found that KV allows size variation and compensates for the function. Here I additionally revealed that size-dependent turbulence generation of KV is involved in its dysfunction and that ATAT1 is involved in the functional compensation.

Free Research Field

発生生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

機能補償作用のしくみを理解することは、これまでの器官サイズ制御に対する定説を覆し、新たな制御機構の発見の可能性を秘めている。そのため本研究の成果は、クッペル胞での機能補償のしくみの解明することで、今後、その他の器官、動物種へ研究を拡大して、器官の機能補償作用の特異性・普遍性を解明していくことに繋がる。