Unraveling of mechanisms of raft signaling as revealed by single-molecule imaging at high resolution

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24370055
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Functional biochemistry
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: SUZUKI Kenichi 京都大学, 物質-細胞統合システム拠点, 准教授 (50423059)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): ANDO Hiromune 岐阜大学, 応用生物科学部, 准教授 (20372518)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞情報伝達機構 / 細胞膜ドメイン / ラフト / 1分子観察

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to unravel the regulation mechanisms of signal transduction in lipid rafts of cell plasma membranes. We tracked single molecules of representative raft molecules, GPI-anchored proteins and gangliosides in living cell membranes. Surprisingly, these raft markers formed transient homodimers which were stabilized by cholesterol. In general, the lifetime of the heterodimers were shorter than those of the homodimers. Our results suggest that these homodimers are induced by spesific protein interactions or specific sugar-chain interactions. Based on these results, we proposed a hypothesis that these homodimers are basic units for creating greater raft domains.

Free Research Field

膜生物学