2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of the genes controlling cellular respiration or mitochondrial function in thermogenic skunk cabbage

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24880027
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Applied biochemistry
Research Institution	University of Miyazaki
Principal Investigator	YASUKO Ito-Inaba 宮崎大学, テニュアトラック推進機構, 助教 (80400191)
Project Period (FY)	2012-08-31 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	植物 / 遺伝子 / 発現制御 / 呼吸 / ミトコンドリア / 発熱
Research Abstract	Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus renifolius) can keep the spadix temperature at around 20 degrees Celsius even if the air temperature falls below freezing. In the thermogenic spadix, a large amount of mitochondria was observed and the genes involved in cellular respiration or mitochondrial function were highly expressed. These results suggest that transcriptional regulation systems may exist to activate mitochondrial biogenesis during the thermogenic stage in skunk cabbage. To elucidate the transcriptional mechanisms, we examined 5' flanking regions of several genes which may play a role directly or indirectly in floral thermogenesis and was highly expressed in the thermogenic-stage spadices. As a result, we identified several consensus sequences conserved in all promoter regions in the genes examined here. These cis-regulatory elements may play a role in regulating the expression of the genes, and lead to massive floral thermogenesis through increased mitochondrial function.