Epigenetics of developmental abnormality of biological rhythms

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26560460
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Basic / Social brain science
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: OKAMURA Hitoshi 京都大学, 薬学研究科(研究院), 教授 (60158813)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 生物リズム・エピジェネティックス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Many psychiatric disorders such as manic depression and schizophrenia, are speculated to be caused by genetic predisposition and environmental factors. Circadian rhythm is also known as a brain function, and its molecular mechanisms are now well clarified. Here we examined the effect of haploinsufficiency of clock oscillatory system. Genetically uniform vulnerable mouse was nursed by normal mice or by mice with dysregulated clock at the time of breeding. Epigenetic effect was examined by measuring the period length of circadian behaviors. The results suggests that genetically determined circadian characteristics can be altered by epigenetic factors.

Free Research Field

時間医学