Nano scale in vivo imaging of contractile proteins in mouse skeletal muscle

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24540430
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Biophysics/Chemical physics
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: KAYA Motoshi 東京大学, 理学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (00422098)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KOBAYASHI Takuya 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 研究員 (60468585)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 筋肉 / サルコメア / in vivoイメージング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In muscle, myosins are contractile protein that interacts with and pulls actin filaments toward the center of muscle. The recent single molecule studies have revealed various properties of muscle myosins, however it still remains unknown that how function of individual myosins is integrated into its molecular ensembles in sarcomere, which is an contractile unitary structure. In order to investigate whether they are simply a sum of their functional units or they enhance the functional output in their molecular ensembles, the experimental system was successfully developed to detect dynamics of single actin filaments in sarcomere structures by injecting DNA of the target protein, tropomodulin, into mouse skeletal muscles. Tropomodulin is located at the tip of actin filament and can be labeled by fluorescent particles (e.g., quantum dots) so that individual actin filaments can be visualized and are trackable,

Free Research Field

生物物理