2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
The mechanism regulating the function of a natural cytotoxin
| Project/Area Number |
15K12740
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Biomolecular chemistry
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| Research Institution | Hokkaido University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha) |
EGAMI Yoko 北海道大学, 大学院薬学研究院, 助教 (50758612)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | Calyculin A / リン酸化 / 脱リン酸化 / 海綿動物 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Marine sponges are prolific sources of highly potent cytotoxic compounds, some of which are promising as anticancer drugs. However, the potent cytotoxicity would be harmful to the host sponge, because marine sponges are also animals. Therefore, it is possible that the self-resistance and activated defense systems underlie their biosynthetic mechanism. Wound-activated chemical defense systems are prevalent among terrestrial plants. The precursor molecule and the activating enzyme are compartmentalized in the tissue, which is readily disrupted by wounding to accomplish chemical defense. The similar activated defense strategy has also been found in a few marine sponges. In previous study, we obtained calyculin biosynthetic gene cluster from the metagenomic DNA of Japanese marine sponge Discodermia calyx and the deactivating enzyme was also clustered. The aim of this work is to identify the as-yet unknown enzyme involved in the activating process of the precursor molecule.
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| Free Research Field |
天然物化学
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