Report of Taikichiro Mori Memorial Research Fund 2012

 

 

Research Project:

Understanding the self-organisation of amino acid regulation in yeast

Name:

Kalesh Sasidharan, D3

Affiliation:

Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Graduate school of media and governance, Keio University

 

Introduction

 

The Taikichiro Mori Memorial Research Fund has helped me to improve my research by providing me the opportunity to purchase necessary equipments. I have purchased a computer that is suitable for the required data analyses. My research theme, progress and final goals are given below.

 

Research Project Abstract

 

When Saccharomyces cerevisiae are grown continuously respiration auto-synchronises resulting in stable oscillatory dynamics, where small molecules mediate communication [1]. Transcriptome-wide and metabolome-wide studies indicate that the oscillation functions to temporally separate catabolic and anabolic processes. Consistent with this, the production of amino acids has distinct phase relationships with the oscillation cycle [1]. In addition, oscillation is highly sensitive to amino acid and Rapamycin perturbations [1]. These data indicate a role for the master amino acid regulator Gcn4p in the regulation of oscillatory dynamics, where the Gcn4p is activated by non-aminoacylated tRNAs [2]. Therefore we explore the role of non-aminoacylated tRNAs in oscillatory regulation by constructing a regulatory model of amino acid regulation then testing this experimentally to provide a mechanistic understanding of amino acid feedback on gene regulation. We will also discuss the context of our work in the emergence of coherent behaviour in biochemical networks.

 

Full Report (PDF format)

 

References

1. Douglas B Murray, Manfred Beckmann, and Hiroaki Kitano. Regulation of yeast oscillatory dynamics. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 104(7):2241_2246, Feb 2007.

2. Alan G Hinnebusch. Translational regulation of gcn4 and the general amino acid control of yeast. Annu Rev Microbiol, 59:407_450, 2005.