Welcome to the Division of Gene Expression Mechanism!

All the genetic information, DNA, is packed in the cell nucleus-the minimal unit of the life-and believe or not, 99% of the content is non-coding.  The pre-mRNAs transcribed from genes are indeed horribly interrupted by non-coding sequences, termed ‘introns’.  The mRNAs, serving as designs for proteins, are elaborated after the meticulous work to remove introns, termed ‘splicing’.  We, the team of the Division of Gene Expression Mechanism, are studying to elucidate the precise mechanism of this essential splicing, and trying to investigate the splicing defects causing serious diseases.  We are studying hard in the small laboratory, but having big ideas.

WHAT'S NEW

2023.11.17
Our paper (Kazuhiro Fukumura et al.) has been published in Cell Reports.
Fukumura, K., Sperotto, L., Seuß, S., Kang, H-S., Yoshimoto, R., Sattler, M. & Mayeda, A. (2023). SAP30BP interacts with RBM17/SPF45 to promote splicing in a subset of human short introns. Cell Rep., 42, 113534.
2023.9.5
Our collaboration paper with Osaka Metropolitan University has been accepted and published!
Nagamine, H., Yashiro M., Yoshimoto, N., Izumi, M., Sugimoto, A, Nakahama, K., Ogawa, K., Matsumoto, Y., Sawa, K., Tani, Y., Kaneda, H., Mitsuoka, S., Yamada, K., Watanabe, T., Aasai, K., Fukumura, K., Mayeda, A. & Kawaguchi, T. (2023) RBM17 expression is associated with the efficacy of ICI monotherapy in NSCLC with low PD-L1 expression. Anticancer Res. 43,4663–4672.
2023.6.1
Communication article by Dr. Makoto Shimada has been published.
Shimada, M.K. (2023). Splicing modulators are involved in human polyglutamine diversification via protein complexes shuttling between nucleus and cytoplasm. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 24, 9622.
2022.12.30
The preprint of our paper (Kazuhiro Fukumura et al.) has been posted on the preprint server.
Fukumura, K., Sperotto, L., Seuß, S., Kang, H-S., Yoshimoto, R., Sattler, M. & Mayeda, A. (2022). The RBM17/SPF45–SAP30BP interaction is essential for splicing in a subset of human short introns. bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/2022.12.30.522300v1
2022.2.24
Our collaboration paper with National Taiwan University Hospital has been published!
Chua, H.-H, Kameyama, T. and Mayeda, A. & Yeh, T.-H. (2022) Epstein-Barr virus enhances cancer-specific aberrant splicing of TSG101 pre-mRNA. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 23, 2516.
2021.11.15
Taylor & Francis Co. requested our contribution for a commentary article "Author's Views" and it has been published!
Fukumura, K., Venables, J.P. & Mayeda, A. (2021). SPF45/RBM17-dependent splicing and multidrug resistance to cancer chemotherapy.Mol. Cell. Oncol. 9, in press.
2021.10.1
Assistant Professor, Dr. Kazuhiro Fukumura, has been promoted to Senior Assistant Professor.
2021.8.13
Our paper (Kazuhiro Fukumura et al.) has been published!
Fukumura, K., Yoshimoto, R., Sperotto, L., Kang, H-S., Hirose, T., Inoue, K., Sattler, M. & Mayeda, A. (2021). SPF45/RBM17-dependent, but not U2AF-dependent, splicing in a distinct subset of human short introns. Nat. Commun. 12, 4910.
2021.6.17
Our paper by Mr. Yuta Otani (Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd.) et al. has been published!
Otani, Y., Fujita, K.-i., Kameyama, T. and Mayeda, A. (2021) The exon junction complex core represses cancer-specific mature mRNA re-splicing: A potential key role in terminating splicing. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 22, 6519.
2021.3.29
Collaboration paper by Dr. Rei Yoshimoto (former Assistant Professor) et al. has been published online!
Yoshimoto, R. et al. (2021) Spliceostatin A interaction with SF3B1 limits U1 snRNP availability and causes premature cleavage and polyadenylation. Cell Chem. Biol. 28,1356-1365.
2020.7.4
Our paper by Dr. Rei Yoshimoto et al. has been published!
Yoshimoto, R., Rahimi, K., Ebbesen, K.K., Hansen, T.B., Kjems, J. and Mayeda, A. (2018) Biosynthesis of circular RNA, ciRS-7/CDR1as is mediated by Mammalian-wide Interspersed Repeats, MIRs.iScience 23,101345.
2019.2.12
Our collaboration paper with National Taiwan University Hospital has been published online!
Chua, H.-H, Kameyama, T. and Mayeda, A. and Yeh, T.-H. (2019) Cancer-specifically re-spliced TSG101 mRNA promotes invasion and metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 20, 773.
2018.1.31
Our paper by Dr. Kazuhiro Fukumura et al. has been E-published online!
Fukumura, K., Inoue, K. and Mayeda, A. (2018) Splicing activator RNPS1 suppresses errors in pre-mRNA splicing: A Key factor for mRNA quality control. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., in press.
2017.3.16
Joint Research Project funded by FWF (Austrian Science Fund) and JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) was awarded! The title of the research was " Global Profiling of Cancer-Associated Exitrons, Alternatively Spliced Internal Regions of Protein-Coding Exons".
2016.10.17
Our paper by Dr. Rei Yoshimoto et al. has been E-published online!
Yoshimoto, R., Kaida, D., Furuno, M., Burroughs, A.M., Noma, S., Suzuki, H., Kawamura, Y., Hayashizaki, Y., Mayeda, A. and Yoshida, M. (2016) Global analysis of pre-mRNA subcellular localization following splicing inhibition by spliceostatin A. RNA, in press.
2016.10.13
Our paper in collaboration with Dr. T. Tsukahara (Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) has been published online!
Suzuki, H., Aoki, Y., Kameyama, T., Saito, T., Masuda, S., Tanihata, J., Nagata, T., Mayeda, A., Takeda, S. and Tsukahara, T. (2016) Endogenous multiple exon skipping and back-splicing at the DMD mutation hotspot. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 17, 1722.
2016.8.2
Our paper by Dr. Kazuhiro Fukumura et al. has been E-published online!
Fukumura, K., Wakabayashi, S., Kataoka, N., Sakamoto, H., Suzuki, Y., Nakai, K., Mayeda, A. and Inoue, K. (2016) The exon junaction complex controls the efficient and faithful splicing of a subset of transcripts involved in mitotic cell-cyle progression. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 17, 1153.
2016.7.15
Review (in Japanese) by Drs. Rei Yoshimoto and Akila Mayeda has been published!
Yoshimoto, R. and Mayeda, A. (2016) circRNA, In Non-coding RNA: Overview of RNA world. Hirose, T. and Tomari, Y., eds. Kagaku-Dojin. pp. 271–279.
2016.6.15
Our paper by Dr. Makoto K. Shimada et al. has been E-published online!
Shimada, M.K., Sanbonmatsu, R., Yamaguchi-Kabata, Y., Yamasaki, C., Suzuki, Y., Chakraborty, R., Gojobori, T. and Imanishi, T. (2016) Selection pressure on human STR loci and its relevance in repeat expansion disease. Mol. Genet. Genomics., 291, 1851-1869.
2016.1.5
Our paper in collbaboration with Dr. Nobuhiko Emi (Graduate School of Medicine, Division of Hematology) has been E-published online!
Abe, A., Mizuta, S., Okamoto, A., Yamamoto, Y., Kameyama, T., Mayeda, A. and Emi, N. (2016) Transcriptional activation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor α and GS homeobox 2 resulting from E26 transformation-specific variant 6 translocation in a case of acute myeloid leukemia with t(4;12)(q12;p13). Int. J. Lab. Hematol., 38, e15–e18.
2015.11.6
Our paper in collbaboration with Dr. Nobuhiko Emi (Graduate School of Medicine, Division of Hematology) has been E-published online!
Abe, A., Yamamoto, Y., Iba, S., Kanie, T., Okamoto, A., Tokuda, M., Inaguma, Y., Yanada, M., Morishima, S., Mizuta, S., Akatsuka, Y., Okamoto, M., Kameyama, T., Mayeda, A. and Emi, N. (2015). ETV6-LPXN fusion transcript generated by t(11;12)(q12.1;p13) in a patient with relapsing acute myeloid leukemia with NUP98-HOXA9. Genes Chromosomes Cancer, 55, 242-250.
2015.10.31
Our paper in collbaboration with Dr. Nobuhiko Emi (Graduate School of Medicine, Division of Hematology) has been E-published online!
Abe, A., Yamamoto, Y., Iba, S., Okamoto, A., Tokuda, M., Inaguma, Y., Yanada, M., Morishima, S., Kanie, T., Tsuzuki M., Akatsuka, Y., Mizuta, S., Okamoto, M., Kameyama, T., Mayeda, A. and Emi, N. (2015) NUP214-RAC1 and RAC1-COL12A1 fusion in complex variant translocations involving chromosomes 6, 7 and 9 in an acute myeloid leukemia case with DEK-NUP214. Cytogenet. Genome. Res., 146, 279-284.
2015.10.3
Our review by Dr. Rei Yoshimoto et al. has been E-published online!
Yoshimoto, R., Mayeda, A., Yoshida, M. and Nakagawa, S. (2016) MALAT1 long non-coding RNA in cancer.  Biochem. Biophys. Acta, 1859, 192-199.
2015.5.7
Our paper by Dr. Makoto K. Shimada et al. has been published online!
Shimada, M.K., Sasaki-Haraguchi, N., and Mayeda, A. (2015) Idnetification and validation of evolutionarily conserved unusually short pre-mRNA introns in the human genome. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 16, 10376–10388.
2015.3.17
International research activity of Dr. Toshiki Kameyama (Assistant Professor) has been reported in the WEB site (in Japanese) of Scientific Support Programs for Cancer Research Grant-in-Aid!
2015.1.1
Our review (in Japanese) by Dr. Toshiki Kameyama (Assistant Professor) has been published!
Kameyama, T., Mayeda, A. (2015) Exploring the generation of aberrant proteins in cancer cells from 'mRNA re-splicing' event. Pharmacia, 51, 22–26.
2014.5.22
Highlight of our research (in Japanese) has been presented on-line!
'Searching for fhe mechanism of producing aberrant proteins in cancer cells by mRNA re-splicing events'
Scientific Support Programs for Cancer Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
2014.1.11
Recent research results by Dr. Makoto Shimada has been reported in the Japanese newspaper.
'Why human can be survived? Explicate by genome comparison with Neanderthal man '
Chunichi Newspaper(HardcopyWeb
2013.11.11
Our paper by Dr. Toshiki Kameyama et al. has been published!
Matsushita, F., Kameyama, T., Kadokawa, Y. and Marunouchi, T. (2014) Spatio-temporal expression pattern of Myt/NZF family zinc finger transcription factors during mouse nervous system development. Dev. Dyn., 243, 588-600.
2013.10.14
Our paper in collaboration with Dr. Kinji Ohno Laboratory(Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine) has been published!
Rahman, M.A., Masuda, A., Ohe, K., Ito, M., Hutchinson, D.O., Mayeda, A., Engel, A.G. and Ohno, K. (2013) HnRNP L and hnRNP LL antagonistically modulate PTB-mediated splicing supression of CHRNA1pre-mRNA. Sci. Rep., 3, 2931.
2013.1.23
Our paper by Dr. Hitoshi Suzuki (former Postdoc; Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) has been published!
Suzuki, H., Kameyama, T., Ohe, K., Tsukahara, T. and Mayeda, A. (2013) Nested introns in an intron: evidence of multi-stepp splicing of a large intron in the human dystrophin pre-mRNA. FEBS Lett., 587, 555-561.
2012.6.7
The Japanese newspaper has reported the below publication in the article, entitled
'Aberrant proteins in cancer cells: Finding for the possible mechanism'
Chunichi newspaper
2012.6.6
Our paper by Dr. Toshiki Kameyama (Assistant Professor) has been published!
Kameyama, T., Suzuki, H. and Mayeda, A. (2012) Re-splicing of mature mRNA in cancer cells promotes activation of distant weak alternative splice sites. Nucleic Acids Res., 40, 7896-7906.
2012.5.26
Our paper by Dr. Noriko Sasaki-Haraguchi (Postdoc) has been published!
Sasaki-Haraguchi, N., Shimada, M.K., Taniguchi, I., Ohno, M. and Mayeda, A. (2012) Mechanistic insights into human pre-mRNA splicing of human ultra-short introns: Potential unusual mechanism identifies G-rich introns. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 423, 289–294.