Chemical Genetics Laboratory
Chief Scientist
Minoru YOSHIDA (D.Agr.)
Chemical Genetics is one of the new molecular genetics in which mutations in classical genetics are replaced by specific chemicals called bioprobes, and by which their unique cellular phenotypes are analyzed at the molecular level. This approach is providing more and more new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying cellular response, cell cycle control and molecular recognition. In our laboratory, biological functions of a number of molecules targeted by bioprobes are studied by approaches using genomics, proteomics, and microbiology, in addition to chemical genetics. In particular, we focus on regulation of protein subcellular localization and protein post-translational modifications and their interplays such as acetylation, methylation ubiquitination and sumoylation. Our motto is to enjoy our research while aiming to create novel concepts in both basic and applied biologies.
- Regulation of protein post-translational modifications such as acetylation
- Epigenetic regulation by splicing and histone modifications
- Identification of molecular targets for novel bioactive compounds
- Roles of DNA recombination in mitochondrial inheritance
- Secondary metabolism of pathogenic filamentous fungi and plant pest control
- September 07, 2009
- Real-time observation of histon acetylation, a process that regulates gene function
- February 24, 2009
- Clarification of a new principle that yeast mitochondrial DNA initiates recombination without twisting its double helical strand, giving an answer to the controversial difference in the experimental results between in vitro and in vivo tests
- July 23, 2007
- Chemical Genetics Laboratory of DRI, in collaboration with University of Tokyo and Astellas Pharma Inc., found that spliceostatin A, a potent anti-cancer drug, inhibited the pre-mRNA splicing process.
- Nishimura, S., Arita, Y., Honda, M., Iwamoto, K., Matsuyama, A., Shirai, A., Kawasaki, H., Kakeya, H., Kobayashi, T., Matsunaga, S., and Yoshida, M.:
"Marine antifungal theonellamides targets 3beta-hydroxysterol to activate Rho1 signaling" Nature Chem. Biol., 6: 519-526, 2010. - Schneider-Poetsch, T., Usui, T., Kaida, D., and Yoshida, M.:
"Garbled messages and corrupted translations."
Nature Chem. Biol., 6: 189-198, 2010. - Sasaki, K., Ito, T., Nishino, N., Khochbin, S., and Yoshida, M.:
"Real-time imaging of histone H4 hyperacetylation in living cells."
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 106: 16257-16262, 2009. - Shirai, A., Matsuyama, A., Yashiroda, Y., Hashimoto, A., Kawamura, Y., Arai, R., Komatsu, Y., Horinouchi, S., and Yoshida, M.:
"Global analysis of gel mobility of proteins and its use in target identification."
J. Biol. Chem., 283: 10745-10752, 2008. - Dohi, Y., Ikura, T., Hoshikawa, Y., Katoh, Y., Ota, K., Nakanome, A., Muto, A., Omura, S., Ohta, T., Ito, A., Yoshida, M., Noda, T., and Igarashi, K.:
"Bach1 inhibits oxidative stress-induced cellular senescence by impeding p53 function on chromatin."
Nature Struct. Mol. Biol., 15: 1246-1254, 2008 - Kaida, D., Motoyoshi, H., Tashiro, E., Nojima, T., Hagiwara, M., Ishigami, K., Watanabe, H., Kitahara, T., Yoshida, T., Nakajima, H., Tani, T., Horinouchi, S., and Yoshida, M.:
"Spliceostatin A targets SF3b and inhibits both splicing and nuclear retention of pre-mRNA"
Nature Chem. Biol., 3: 576-583, 2007. - Shimazu, T., Horinouchi, S., and Yoshida, M.:
"Multiple histone deacetylases and the CREB-binding protein regulate pre-mRNA 3'-end processing"
J. Biol. Chem., 282: 4470-4478, 2007. - Matsuyama, A., Arai, R., Yashiroda, Y., Shirai, A., Kamata, A., Sekido, S., Kobayashi, Y., Hashimoto, A., Hamamoto, M., Hiraoka, Y., Horinouchi, S., and Yoshida, M.:
"ORFeome cloning and global analysis of protein localization in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe"
Nature Biotechnol., 24: 841-847, 2006. - Yoshida, Y., Chiba, T., Tokunaga, F., Kawasaki, H., Iwai, K., Suzuki, T., Ito, Y., Matsuoka, K., Yoshida, M., Tanaka, K., and Tai, T.:
"E3 ubiquitin ligase that recognizes sugar chains"
Nature, 418: 438-442, 2002. - Matsuyama, A., Shimazu, T., Sumida, Y., Saito, A., Yoshimatsu, Y., Seigneurin-Berny, D., Osada, H., Komatsu, Y., Nishino, N., Khochbin, S., Horinouchi, S., and Yoshida, M.:
"In vivo destabilization of dynamic microtubules by HDAC6-mediated deacetylation"
EMBO J., 21: 6820-6831, 2002.
Principal Investigator
- Minoru YOSHIDA
- Chief Scientist
Staff Scientist
- Feng LING
- Senior Research Scientist
- Akihisa MATSUYAMA
- Senior Research Scientist
- Yoko YASHIRODA
- Senior Research Scientist
- Akihiro ITO
- Senior Research Scientist
- Ken MATSUMOTO
- Senior Research Scientist
Postdoctoral Fellow
- Tilman Hans Jorg SCHNEIDER-POETSCH
- Foreign Postdoctoral Researcher
- Rei YOSHIMOTO
- Postdoctoral Researcher
Technical Assistant
- Yumi KAWAMURA
- Technical Staff I
- Atsushi HASHIMOTO
- Technical Staff II
- Satoko MAEDA
- Technical Staff II
- Megumi TAKASE
- Technical Staff II
- Elliot Colby BRADSHAW
- Technical Staff II