Development of a method to activate specific signaling pathway.

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26650067
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cell biology
• Research Institution: National Institute for Physiological Sciences
• Principal Investigator: MURAKOSHI Hideji 生理学研究所, 脳機能計測・支援センター, 准教授 (90608142)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: シナプス / 光操作

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, we aimed to develop optogenetic tools to selectively activate a specific pathway of biochemical signaling in synapses. These tools enable us to identify the essential pathways and signaling molecules required for the induction of long-term potentiation. By far, we have developed a prototype photo-activatable CaMKII (paCaMKII), and found that the insertion of LOV2 domain into CaMKII decreases the folding efficiency and induces aggregation of paCaMKII. Therefore, we developed a method to improve the folding efficiency and expression pattern of signaling molecule. An application of this method to paCaMKII also improved the expression pattern and dynamic range of activity in HeLa cells.

Free Research Field

生物物理