"What Cells Make" Research Team
Team Head
Naoko IMAMOTO (Ph.D)
We study the molecular mechanisms that govern the cellular function through the study of functional organization and dynamics of cytoplasmic organelles, cell nucleus, and intra/inter cellular signaling. In particular, we are currently focusing on analysis of organelle events related to cell differentiation or morphogenesis, higher order genome organization, and intracellular macromolecule trafficking. We develop tools and techniques that enable us to visualize and understand organization and function of cellular compartments and structures. We employ these and other techniques to understand key cellular events necessary for maintenance and determination of cell fate.
- Analysis of organelle function responsible for development and morphogenesis
- Dynamics and functional organization of cell nucleus and chromosomes
- Cell engineering
- Shintomi, K., Hirano, T.:
"Releasing cohesin from chromosome arms in early mitosis: opposing actions of Wapl-Pds5 and Sgo1."
Genes Dev.;23, :2224-36 (2009). - Nakazato, K., and Mochizuki, A.:
"Steepness of thermal gradient is essential to obtain a unified view of thermotaxis in C. elegans."
J. theor. Biol. 260, 56-65. (2009) - Nishino, Y., Takahashi, Y., Imamoto, N., Ishikawa,T., and Maeshima,K.:
"Three-Dimensional Visualization of a Human Chromosome Using Coherent X-ray Diffraction."
Physical Review Letters, 102, 18101 (2009) - Dhonukshe, P., Tanaka, H., Goh, T., Ebine, K., Mähönen, A.P., Prasad, K., Blilou, I., Geldner, N., Xu, J., Uemura, T., Chory, J., Ueda, T., Nakano, A., Scheres, B., and Friml, J.:
"Generation of cell polarity in plants links endocytosis, auxin gradient and cell-fate decisions."
Nature, 45: 962-967 (2008). - Tahara, K., Takagi, M., Ohsugi, M., Sone, T., Maeshima, K., Horiuchi, Y., Tokai-Nishizumi, N., Nishiumi, F.F., Imamoto, F., Yamamoto, T., Kose, S., and Imamoto, N.:
"Importin β and small GTPase Ran mediates the chromosome loading of human chromokinesin KID."
J. Cell Biol., 180, 493-506. (2008). - Tokunaga, M., Imamoto, N., and Sakata-Sogawa, K.:
"Highly inclined thin illumination enables clear single-molecule imaging in cells."
Nature Methods. 5, 159-161 (2008) - Hongoh, Y., Sharma, V.K., Prakash, T., Noda, S., Toh, H., Taylor, T.D., Kudo, T., Sakaki, Y., Toyoda, A., Hattori, M., and Ohkuma, M.:
"Genome of an endosymbiont coupling N2 fixation to cellulolysis within protist cells in termite gut."
Science 322: 1108-1109 (2008). - Onn, I., Aono, N., Hirano, M., and Hirano, T.:
"Reconstitution and subunit geometry of human condensin complexes."
EMBO J. 26, 1024-1034 (2007). - Goh, T., Uchida, W., Arakawa, S., Ito, E., Dainobu, T., Ebine, K., Takeuchi, M., Sato, K., Ueda, T., and Nakano, A.:
"VPS9a, the common activator for two distinct types of Rab5 GTPases, is essential for development of Arabidopsis thaliana."
Plant Cell 19, 3504-3515 (2007). - Kose, S., Furuta, M., Koike, M., Yoneda, Y., and Imamoto, N.:
"The 70-kD heat-shock cognate protein (hsc70) facilitates the nuclear export of the import receptors."
J. Cell Biol., 171, 19-25 (2005).