Tohoku university school of medicine

We have been exploring molecular mechanisms of pattern formation of vertebrate embryos, with central nervous system, limb bud and heart as model organs, and with several key transcription factors as our keen interest. Nonetheless, we have noticed that extensive analyses on the genetic programs are not sufficient for understanding thoroughly the dynamic pattern formation of developing embryos. Recently, we have identified that several proteins change their shapes and conformation in response to physical forces that are generated by cells, hereby such strains trigger next biochemical responses. We are now studying this novel mechanism to understand functional roles of physical forces generated by cells and sensed by cells.

1)Ken Matsumoto, Shigeki Nishihara, Mika Kamimura, Takao Otoguro, Masayuki Uehara, Yukiko Maeda, Keiko Ogura, Andrew Lumsden, and Toshihiko Ogura:"The Iroquois prepattern gene Irx2 induces the complete transformation of tectum to cerebellum" Nature Neuroscience 7: 605-612, 2004.

2)Koshiba-Takeuchi, K., Takeuchi, J.K., Matsumoto, K., Momose, T., Uno, K., Hoepker, V., Ogura, K., Takahashi, N., Nakamura, H., Yasuda, K. and Ogura, T.:"Tbx5 and the retinotectum projection" Science 287、134-137　2000

3)Takeuchi JK, Koshiba-Takeuchi K, Matsumoto K, Vogel-Hopker A, Naitoh-Matsuo M, Ogura K, Takahashi N, Yasuda K, Ogura T:"Tbx5 and Tbx4 genes determine the wing/leg identity of limb buds" Nature 398, 810-814 1999

4)Takayuki Suzuki, Jun Takeuchi, Kazuko Koshiba-Takeuchi, and Toshihiko Ogura:"Tbx genes specify posterior digit identity through Shh and BMP signaling" Developmental Cell 6, 43-53 2004

5)Yasuyuki S. Kida, Takayuki Sato, Kota Y. Miyasaka, Asami Suto and Toshihiko Ogura:"Daam1 regulates the endocytosis of EphB during the convergent extension of the zebrafish notochord" Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 6708-6713 2007

developmental biology, central nervous system, limb bud, heart