An assay to detect substances to promote epigenetic repression of transcription

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26550041
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Risk sciences of radiation and chemicals
• Research Institution: Osaka Prefecture University
• Principal Investigator: YAGI TAKASHI 大阪府立大学, 理学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (80182301)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KAWANISHI Masanobu 大阪府立大学, 理学系研究科, 准教授 (70332963)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: エピジェネティックス / エピミュータジェン / バイオアッセイ / ５-メチルシトシン / プロモーター

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Aberrant epigenetic alteration of genes, that is, cytosine methylation and demethylation, is caused occasionally when the cells are exposed to particular exogenous chemicals. We found that O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) gene promoter is the suitable DNA sequence that can detect the epigenetic alteration. In this study, we made the reporter plasmid that has hypoxanthine-phosphoribosyltransferase (hprt) cDNA under the control of the MGMT promoter and also has neomycin-resistance gene. We introduced the plasmid into hprt-deficient cells and established the cell line that becomes 6-thioguanine resistance by inactivation of the introduced hprt by the promoter methylation. We are now exploring the epimutagenic activity in a large variety of man-made substances.

Free Research Field

分子細胞遺伝学