Elucidation of evolutionary and molecular basis of animal special functions based on genome information and its application to highly functional sensors

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K19097
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 37:Biomolecular chemistry and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Ogawa Tomohisa 東北大学, 農学研究科, 教授 (80240901)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 柴田 弘紀 九州大学, 生体防御医学研究所, 准教授 (80315093)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-06-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: TRPチャネル / 赤外線受容装置 / ピット器官 / 毒蛇 / ゲノム解読 / 酵母発現系

Outline of Final Research Achievements

As a "special function of animals", we elucidate the details of the evolution, structure and function of TRPA1 channel and other TRP channels in pit organ receptors specific to pit vipers. In this study, we elucidated the gene structure and evolution of the TRP channel group by decoding the hub genome(1), analyzed the gene expression of TRP channels in various tissues including pit organs (transcriptome analysis)(2), and constructed a yeast expression system for the TRP channel proteins (3). We found that the TRPA1 gene is located on chromosome 3, which is different from venom genes that show accelerated evolution and located on micro chromosomes, and that it is successfully localized to the membrane in yeast transfected with α-factor TRPA1-yEGFP_p426GAL.

Free Research Field

タンパク質科学，酵素学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

マムシ亜科(Crotalinae, pit viper)が特異的に持っている赤外線受容装置のピット器官の受容体transient receptor potential (TRP) チャネルの構造と機能，および進化についてはまだ不明な点が多い。特にどのように赤外線を受容してシグナルに変えているのか。この問題が明らかになれば，例えばテラヘルツ光センサーデバイスなど生物進化に基づく新規センサーデバイス開発に資することができる。