National Institute for Basic Biology

Spatial lipidomics suggests fatty acid scavenging by an intranuclear parasite

Abstract Bacteria of the family Endozoicomonadaceae are widely associated with marine animals, yet their in situ metabolism remains mostly unknown. Genomic studies suggest that members of this family engage in extensive metabolic exchange with their hosts, ranging from nutrient p...

Bruce suppresses autophagy-regulated caspase activity and wing tissue growth in Drosophila

Abstract Caspases are cysteine-aspartic proteases that mediate both lethal and non-lethal cellular outcomes, including the promotion of tissue growth. However, the mechanisms underlying the differential regulation of these activities remain unclear. We have previously shown that...

GAMETE EXPRESSED PROTEIN1 ortholog in Marchantia polymorpha is essential for male pronucleus formation in fertilized egg cells

Abstract GAMETE EXPRESSED PROTEIN1 (GEX1) is a gamete nuclear membrane protein essential for nuclear fusion during sexual reproduction in Arabidopsis thaliana. GEX1 orthologs have been identified in several terrestrial plants. The liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, which uses motil...

REAP1/AtSWAP70 integrates RAB5 and ROP signalling during sexual reproduction

Small GTPases of the Ras superfamily are critical regulators of diverse cellular processes. While crosstalk between their signalling pathways has been documented in animals, similar mechanisms remain unexplored in plants, where small GTPases have undergone unique evolutionary div...

DeepLabCut-based automated system reveals diverse temperature tolerance among medaka strains and related Oryzias species

Abstract Temperature is a critical environmental factor influencing the physiology and behavior of ectothermic animals, yet conventional methods for evaluating thermal tolerance in fish rely on subjective manual observation of loss of equilibrium (LOE), limiting experimental thro...

ABCG transporters are involved in the accumulation of specialized metabolites in the oil bodies of Marchantia polymorpha.

Bioactive specialized metabolites (SMs) are synthesized and sequestered in specific cellular compartments or organelles as a self-defense strategy against their intrinsic toxicity. Liverwort-specific oil bodies accumulate large amounts of SMs and contribute to chemical defense; h...

MIT / TFE family transcription factors, Mitf and Tfec, redundantly promote pigment cell differentiation and retinal epithelium pigmentation in teleosts

BACKGROUND: Transcription factors of the MIT/TFE family-mitfa, mitfb, and tfec-play essential roles in specifying pigment cells derived from neural crest cells in vertebrates. In teleosts, which possess multiple pigment cell types, these factors exhibit partially redundant but la...