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Molecular Membrane Biology Laboratory
Akihiko NAKANO
Chief Scientist
Akihiko NAKANO (D.Sci.)
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Research Areas

In eukaryotic cells, vesicular transport is essential for dynamic membrane traffic among organelles. Our laboratory focuses on the roles of vesicular trafficking in the secretory pathway and aims at elucidating the molecular mechanisms of vesicle budding and fusion, and unveiling the secrets of molecular recognition and sorting during these processes. We are also concerned with the fact that the secretory processes are important for determination of cell polarity, directions of cell division and elongation, and will pursue how they contribute to the morphogenesis of tissues and organs. As experimental systems, we use the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae for detailed molecular and genetic analyses, and higher plants Arabidopsis for expansion to multicellular systems. Every kind of methodology, including molecular genetics, biochemistry and cell biology (especially "live cell imaging"), is being employed.

Research Subject

  1. Study of the Roles of Membrane Trafficking in the Morphogenesis of Higher Plants
  2. Study of the Molecular Mechanisms of Vesicle Formation and Fusion in the Secretory Pathway
  3. Study of the Mechanisms of Protein Sorting during Membrane Trafficking

Related links

  1. RIKEN Advanced Science Institute Website_Laboratories PageNew Window
  2. Individual Website Laboratory PageNew Window

Press release

May 15, 2006
New mechanistic evidence for the protein trafficking in the organelle, the Golgi apparatus, supporting "the cisternal maturation model" New Window

RIKEN RESEARCH

December 04,2009
The simple truth
The plant hormone abscisic acid makes use of a surprisingly elegant and straightforward system to regulate its many essential functions New Window
January 23, 2009
Stay of execution
A new twist on an old technique helps researchers identify proteins with a regulatory 'death sentence' New Window
July 24,2006
How cells customize compounds
New laser-based imaging technology resolves a protein trafficking debate New Window
July 05,2006
Shedding light on how sensors work
Researchers from RIKEN and two Japanese universities have confirmed the molecular details of how a significant group of light-sensing proteins work New Window

List of Selected Publications

  1. Yuki Hamamura, Chieko Saito, Chie Awai, Daisuke Kurihara, Atsushi Miyawaki, Tsuyoshi Nakagawa, Masahiro M Kanaoka, Narie Sasaki, Akihiko Nakano, Frédéric Berger, and Tetsuya Higashiyama,:
    "Live cell imaging reveals the dynamics of two sperm cells during double fertilization in Arabidopsis thaliana"
    Curr. Biol. in press.
  2. Satoshi Naramoto, Jürgen Kleine-Vehn, Stéphanie Robert, Masaru Fujimoto, Tomoko Dainobu, Tomasz Paciorek, Takashi Ueda, Akihiko Nakano, Marc C. E. Van Montagua, Hiroo Fukuda, and Jiří Friml,:
    "ADP-ribosylation factor machinery mediates endocytosis in plant cells"
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. in press.
  3. Akihiko Nakano and Alberto Luini,:
    "Passage through the Golgi"
    Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 22:471-478 (2010).
  4. Masaru Fujimoto, Shin-ichi Arimura, Takashi Ueda, Hideki Takanashi, Yoshikazu Hayashi, Akihiko Nakano, and Nobuhiro Tsutsumi,:
    "Arabidopsis dynamin-related proteins DRP2B and DRP1A participate together in clathrin-coated vesicle formation during endocytosis"
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 107:6094-6099 (2010).
  5. Masami Yamashita, Kazuo Kurokawa, Yusuke Sato, Atsushi Yamagata, Hisatoshi Mimura, Azusa Yoshikawa, Ken Sato, Akihiko Nakano, and Shuya Fukai,:
    "Structural basis for the Rho1- and phosphoinositide-dependent localization of Sec3, a subunit of the exocyst complex"
    Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 17:180-186 (2010).
  6. Kazuhito V. Tabata, Ken Sato, Toru Ide, Takayuki Nishizaka, Akihiko Nakano, and Hiroyuki Noji,:
    "Visualization of cargo concentration by COPII minimal machinery in a planar lipid membrane"
    EMBO J. 28:3279-3289 (2009).
  7. Akeo Kadota, Noboru Yamada, Noriyuki Suetsugu, Mana Hirose, Chieko Saito, Keiko Shoda, Satoshi Ichikawa, Takatoshi Kagawa, Akihiko Nakano, and Masamitsu Wada,:
    "Short actin-based mechanism for light-directed chloroplast movement in Arabidopsis"
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 106:13106-13111 (2009).
  8. Ebine, K., Okatani, Y., Uemura, T., Goh, T., Shoda, K., Niihama, M., Morita, M.T., Spitzer, C., Otegui, M.S., Nakano, A., and Ueda, T,:
    "A SNARE complex unique to seed plants is required for protein storage vacuole biogenesis and seed development of Arabidopsis thaliana."
    Plant Cell, 20, 3006-3021 (2009).
  9. 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).
  10. Matsuura-Tokita, K., Takeuchi, M., Ichihara, A., Mikuriya, K., and Nakano, A.:
    "Live imaging of yeast Golgi cisternal maturation"
    Nature, 441, 1007-1010 (2006).
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