Studies of physiological function of cauxin, a major urinary protein, by development of cauxin-knocking out cats

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25292191
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Integrative animal science
• Research Institution: Iwate University
• Principal Investigator: Yamashtia Tetsuro 岩手大学, 農学部, 教授 (20202377)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MIYAZAKI MASAO 岩手大学, 農学部, 准教授 (20392144) ; KATAYAMA MASAAKI 岩手大学, 農学部, 准教授 (70436054) ; SAWAI KEN 岩手大学, 農学部, 教授 (90390864)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 遺伝子改変動物 / 酵素 / 尿タンパク質

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The domestic cat excretes cauxin with carboxylesterase activity as a major urinary protein. Our previous studies demonstrated that cauxin hydrolyzes 3-methylbutanol-cysteinylglycine and produces glycine and felinine, a cat-specific amino acid. However little is known whether cauxin has functions other than peptidase in the urine. In this study, we aimed to produce cauxin-knocking our cats to examine the functions of cauxin in cats.
We used transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN) that are restriction enzymes to cut specific sequences of cauxin exon 1 and 2. Our analysis indicated that TALENs targeting exon 2 could destroy the cauxin gene in cat kidney cultured cells. On the other hand, we also found that felinine metabolites are excreted into the urine of humans, mice, and dogs that excrete no cauxin. The results suggest that cauxin excretion is necessary to excrete free felinine that is decomposed to volatile compounds for scent communication.

Free Research Field

生化学