| Budget Amount *help |
¥103,350,000 (Direct Cost: ¥79,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥23,850,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥18,980,000 (Direct Cost: ¥14,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,380,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥20,020,000 (Direct Cost: ¥15,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,620,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥21,060,000 (Direct Cost: ¥16,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,860,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥20,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥16,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥22,490,000 (Direct Cost: ¥17,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥5,190,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Turtles are characterized by the possession of the shell, whose dorsal moiety (carapace) is made by the modification of ribs and vertebral column. To understand the evolutionary process and developmental changes behind the acquisition of the carapace, we picked up Chinese soft-shelled turtle, Pelodiscus sinensis, and comparative embryological and genomic analyses were made. In the genome of P. sinensis, we identified Wnt5a as a candidate for the factor that exerts carapacial ridge formation and folding of body the wall specific to turtles. This project has also ascertained that the turtle is relatded to avians and crocodilians, as a group of archosaurians. It was also implied that the loss of sternum and distal ribs would have taken place in the turtle ancestor. Co-option of Wnt5a and further folding of the body wall would have taken place as the second step towards the turtles, and molecular developmental understanding of this mechanism will be the next project.
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