Functional analysis of the novel metastasis-promoting factor Merm1

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25890022
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Tumor biology
• Research Institution: Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research
• Principal Investigator: TAKEMOTO Ai 公益財団法人がん研究会, がん化学療法センター, 研究員 (20706494)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-08-30 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: がん転移

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Merm1 is a metastasis-promoting factor isolated from in vivo screening. We performed the analysis of Merm1 to elucidate the mechanism of Merm1-regulated metastasis and to propose the new target for metastasis therapy. We found Merm1 MTase domain related to invasion ability of Merm1-expressing high metastatic cells. We searched Merm1-interactants and identified the conserved component of Merm1-holo complex and the ubiquitinylation enzymes which possibly regulate Merm1. And we observed that the some population of nuclear Merm1 localized in a nucleolus and Merm1 level and its MTase domain affected nucleolus morphology. Further analysis of the relationship between the interactants, the function in nucleolus and metastasis regulation by Merm1 is required.

Free Research Field

腫瘍生物学