Department of Experimental Genome Research

Subjects:

1. Analysis of Molecular mechanisms involved in reproduction using genetically modified animals.
2. Development of new technologies to produce genetically manipulated animals by using Lentiviral vectors and RNA interference.
3. Analysis of sex differentiation of germ cells and preimplantation embryos.
4. Investigation of the molecular biological mechanisms involved in cardiovascular diseases.

Published Papers

1. Mechanisms of sperm-egg interactions emerging from gene-manipulated animals.

   M Okabe and J M Cummins

   Cell Mol Life Sci, 64 (15), 1945-1958, 2007.
2. Lats2 is an essential mitotic regulator required for the coordination of cell division.

   Norikazu Yabuta, Nobuhiro Okada, Akihiko Ito, Toshiya Hosomi, Souichi Nishihara, Yuya Sasayama, Azumi Fujimori, Daisuke Okuzaki, Hanjun Zhao, Masahito Ikawa, Masaru Okabe and Hiroshi Nojima

   J Biol Chem, 282 (26), 19259-19271, 2007.
3. PGAP1 knock-out mice show otocephaly and male infertility.

   Yasutaka Ueda, Ryo Yamaguchi, Masahito Ikawa, Masaru Okabe, Eiichi Morii, Yusuke Maeda and Taroh Kinoshita

   J Biol Chem, 282 (42), 30373-30380, 2007.
4. cHS4 insulator-mediated alleviation of promoter interference during cell-based expression of tandemly associated transgenes.

   Kazuhide Yahata, Kazuhiro Maeshima, Takefumi Sone, Taichi Ando, Masaru Okabe, Naoko Imamoto and Fumio Imamoto

   J Mol Biol, 374 (3), 580-590, 2007.
5. Complementation of placental defects and embryonic lethality by trophoblast-specific lentiviral gene transfer.

   Yuka Okada, Yuko Ueshin, Ayako Isotani, Tomoko Saito-Fujita, Hisako Nakashima, Kazushi Kimura, Akira Mizoguchi, Masatsugu Oh-Hora, Yoshiko Mori, Masato Ogata, Robert G Oshima, Masaru Okabe and Masahito Ikawa

   Nat Biotechnol, 25 (2), 233-237, 2007.
6. PGC7/Stella protects against DNA demethylation in early embryogenesis.

   Toshinobu Nakamura, Yoshikazu Arai, Hiroki Umehara, Masaaki Masuhara, Tohru Kimura, Hisaaki Taniguchi, Toshihiro Sekimoto, Masahito Ikawa, Yoshihiro Yoneda, Masaru Okabe, Satoshi Tanaka, Kunio Shiota and Toru Nakano

   Nat Cell Biol, 9 (1), 64-71, 2007.
7. Innate versus learned odour processing in the mouse olfactory bulb.

   Ko Kobayakawa, Reiko Kobayakawa, Hideyuki Matsumoto, Yuichiro Oka, Takeshi Imai, Masahito Ikawa, Masaru Okabe, Toshio Ikeda, Shigeyoshi Itohara, Takefumi Kikusui, Kensaku Mori and Hitoshi Sakano

   Nature, 450 (7169), 503-508, 2007.
8. Akt activation induces epidermal hyperplasia and proliferation of epidermal progenitors.

   K Murayama, T Kimura, M Tarutani, M Tomooka, R Hayashi, M Okabe, K Nishida, S Itami, I Katayama and T Nakano

   Oncogene, 26 (33), 4882-4888, 2007.
9. Antitumor NK activation induced by the Toll-like receptor 3-TICAM-1 (TRIF) pathway in myeloid dendritic cells.

   Takashi Akazawa, Takashi Ebihara, Manabu Okuno, Yu Okuda, Masashi Shingai, Kunio Tsujimura, Toshitada Takahashi, Masahito Ikawa, Masaru Okabe, Norimitsu Inoue, Miki Okamoto-Tanaka, Hiroyoshi Ishizaki, Jun Miyoshi, Misako Matsumoto and Tsukasa Seya

   Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 104 (1), 252-257, 2007.
10. Hypertension and dysregulated proinflammatory cytokine production in receptor activity-modifying protein 1-deficient mice.

    Kazutake Tsujikawa, Katsutoshi Yayama, Tamon Hayashi, Hiroaki Matsushita, Taijiro Yamaguchi, Tomomi Shigeno, Yusuke Ogitani, Megumi Hirayama, Tetsuya Kato, So-ichiro Fukada, Shingo Takatori, Hiromu Kawasaki, Hiroshi Okamoto, Masahito Ikawa, Masaru Okabe and Hiroshi Yamamoto

    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 104 (42), 16702-16707, 2007.
11. Ghrelin deficiency does not influence feeding performance.

    Takahiro Sato, Mamoru Kurokawa, Yoshiki Nakashima, Takanori Ida, Tomoko Takahashi, Yoshihiko Fukue, Masahito Ikawa, Masaru Okabe, Kenji Kangawa and Masayasu Kojima

    Regul Pept, 145 (1-3), 7-11, 2008.
12. Sperm-egg interaction and gene manipulated animals.

    Naokazu Inoue, Ryo Yamaguchi, Masahito Ikawa and Masaru Okabe

    Soc Reprod Fertil Suppl, 65, 363-371, 2007.
13. Efficient derivation of embryonic stem cells by inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase-3.

    Hiroki Umehara, Tohru Kimura, Satoshi Ohtsuka, Toshinobu Nakamura, Kenji Kitajima, Masahito Ikawa, Masaru Okabe, Hitoshi Niwa and Toru Nakano

    Stem Cells, 25 (11), 2705-2711, 2007.
14. Elevated cardiac tissue level of aldosterone and mineralocorticoid receptor in diastolic heart failure: Beneficial effects of mineralocorticoid receptor blocker.

    Tomohito Ohtani, Miho Ohta, Kazuhiro Yamamoto, Toshiaki Mano, Yasushi Sakata, Mayu Nishio, Yasuharu Takeda, Junichi Yoshida, Takeshi Miwa, Mitsuhiro Okamoto, Tohru Masuyama, Yasuki Nonaka and Masatsugu Hori

    Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol, 292 (2), R946-954, 2007.
15. Therapeutic effects of angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker at an advanced stage of hypertensive diastolic heart failure.

    Mayu Nishio, Yasushi Sakata, Toshiaki Mano, Junichi Yoshida, Tomohito Ohtani, Yasuharu Takeda, Takeshi Miwa, Tohru Masuyama, Kazuhiro Yamamoto and Masatsugu Hori

    J Hypertens, 25 (2), 455-461, 2007.
16. Human smooth muscle alpha-actin promoter drives Cre recombinase expression in the cranial suture in addition to smooth muscle cell.

    Takamitsu Maruyama, Shinya Hatakeyama, Takeshi Miwa and Katsuhiko Nishimori

    Biosci Biotechnol Biochem, 71 (4), 1103-1106, 2007.
17. The 193-base pair gsg2 (haspin) promoter region regulates germ cell-specific expression bidirectionally and synchronously.

    Keizo Tokuhiro, Yasushi Miyagawa, Shuichi Yamada, Mika Hirose, Hiroshi Ohta, Yoshitake Nishimune and Hiromitsu Tanaka

    Biol Reprod, 76 (3), 407-414, 2007.
18. Comprehensive analysis of gene expression in testes producing haploid germ cells using DNA microarray analysis.

    Akiko Ike, Keizo Tokuhiro, Mika Hirose, Masami Nozaki, Yoshitake Nishimune and Hiromitsu Tanaka

    Int J Androl, 30 (5), 462-475, 2007.
19. Production of functional spermatids from mouse germline stem cells in ectopically reconstituted seminiferous tubules.

    Kaoru Kita, Takeshi Watanabe, Kimito Ohsaka, Hirofumi Hayashi, Yoshinobu Kubota, Yoji Nagashima, Ichiro Aoki, Hideki Taniguchi, Toshiaki Noce, Kimiko Inoue, Hiromi Miki, Narumi Ogonuki, Hiromitsu Tanaka, Atsuo Ogura and Takehiko Ogawa

    Biol Reprod, 76 (2), 211-217, 2007.
20. Sperm-egg interaction and gene manipulated animals.

    Naokazu Inoue, Ryo Yamaguchi, Masahito Ikawa and Masaru Okabe

    Soc Reprod Fertil Suppl, 65, 363-371, 2007.
21. Single nucleotide polymorphisms: discovery of the genetic causes of male infertility.

    H Tanaka, M Hirose, K Tokuhiro, Y Matsuoka, Y Miyagawa, A Tsujimura, A Okuyama and Y Nishimune

    Soc Reprod Fertil Suppl, 65, 531-534, 2007.
22. Molecular biological features of male germ cell differentiation.

    Hiromitsu Tanaka, Mika Hirose, Keizo Tokuhiro, Hitoshi Tainaka, Yasushi Miyagawa, Akira Tsujimura, Akihiko Okuyama and Yoshitake Nishimune

    Reprod Med Biol, 6 (1), 1-9, 2007.

Link

http://www.biken.osaka-u.ac.jp/