The roles of cadherins in the formation and maintenance of taste buds and taste disorder

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24650497
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Eating habits, studies on eating habits
• Research Institution: Fukuoka Women's University
• Principal Investigator: Shigeto Mami 福岡女子大学, 国際文理学部, 学術研究員 (20458110)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HAMADA Shun 福岡女子大学, 国際文理学部, 教授 (60282349)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-02-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 味蕾 / 古典的カドヘリン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We focus on the roles of classical cadherins in the formation and maintenance of taste buds, since they have been known as important molecules for morphogenesis.
In this study, we obtained the following results. ①Our results by RT-PCR indicated that among the 18 classical cadherins, which have been reported, 11 ones were expressed in taste bud cells. ②Using immunohistochemistry, it was confirmed that several of these 11 classical cadherins were localized in taste bud cells. Moreover, classical cadherin-positive taste bud cells showed immunoreactivity for alpha catenin, which is associated with the C-terminus of classical cadherins. ③The taste bud cells which expressed one of these classical cadherins were confirmed that they were the Type-II cells. ④Our immunohistochemical and ultrastructural analyses revealed that this classical cadherin localized on plasma membrane but was not expressed in adjacent cells.

Free Research Field

分子生物学