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To fully understand genetic information residing in the
entire DNA genome is the next major goal in life science and also an important
issue for radiobiology at NIRS. However, the number of transcripts through
which the genome expresses its various functions is quite large, more than
40,000 per cell or more than 150,000 per individual. The Transcriptome Research
Group has developed a new method for gene expression profiling called High-Coverage
Expression Profiling (HiCEP), which enables us to observe expression differences
of as little as 1.2 times and detect unknown, very slightly expressed genes.
It also has the great advantage that it can be used with all species, rather
than only with the usual laboratory animals.
So far, we have successfully observed changes in gene
expression of two-fold or less after irradiation with good reproducibility,
identified novel rhythmic
expressed transcripts in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is a minute nucleus
in the brain and governs the biological clock, and identified many genes
including unknown ones whose expression was deregulated only in knockout mice.
All of
these would be difficult for conventional methods to detect and analyze.
Issues remaining to be addressed after the successful
implementation of HiCEP include the development of 1) techniques for the mass
processing of samples
(right photo), 2) analytical techniques using small amounts of samples
(currently, more than 1,000 cells are required for analysis), 3) kitting, 4)
a rapid
peak isolation system after analysis and 5) a mass information processing
system.
Progress in the construction of these systems is being made by the Development
of Systems and Technology for Advanced Measurement and Analysis project
of the Japan Science and Technology Agency and the NIRS. These research and
development projects are necessary for encouraging the dissemination of
this
new method
over various scientific fields including the basic sciences, molecular
epidemiology and clinical medicine.
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