KEIO RESEARCHERS INFORMATION SYSTEM

Profile 【 Display / hide 】

Profile 【 Display / hide 】

• Dr. Akio Kanai was born in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from Waseda University in 1985, and obtained his PhD in molecular biology at the University of Tokyo in 1990. He finished postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health, USA (1990-1992), and he was appointed a researcher in the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science (1992-1996). He was a group leader for the Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), ERATO Project Group (1996-2001). He was an Associate Professor at the Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University (2001-2006) and accepted a full professorship in April, 2006. His major research fields include molecular cellular biology and gene regulation in a variety of organisms. His work in life sciences has led him to his present research into RNA-binding proteins and non-coding RNAs.

Message from the Faculty Member 【 Display / hide 】

Message from the Faculty Member 【 Display / hide 】

• 学部や大学院学生の教育について
  　RNA研究プロジェクトが目指すのは考えられる人材の創出です。これを学生時代にきちんと学ぶ必要があります。極端な言い方をすれば、実験技術は、正確に習得出来さえすれば、どこで誰から学んでも問題ではありません。大切なのは、何を研究するのか、困った時にどうするか、どう展開していくのかということをきちんと考えられるようになることです。RNA研究グループ内では、学生の各々のテーマを通して、他のグループの大学院生ならば、私の大学院の授業である「先端分子細胞生物学」の演習を通して、このことに言及したいと思っています。実際、私のグループで大腸菌RNAの基礎研究を行った学生が、企業では、がんの研究に従事していたりします。また、アカデミアで応用の研究に従事している者もいます。すなわち、学生時代のテーマに縛られずに研究を展開していけるようにすることが重要であると判断しています。

Profile Summary 【 Display / hide 】

Profile Summary 【 Display / hide 】

• 遺伝情報の流れとしてDNA→RNA→蛋白質(セントラルドグマ)が提唱されたのは60年も前のことです。この考え方は基本軸として揺るがないでしょうが、1970-80年代における、逆転写酵素や酵素活性を有したRNA (リボザイム)の発見等で、その修正を要求されてきました。また、21世紀になってから極めて沢山のNon-coding RNAが発見されたことで、セントラルドグマにおけるRNA分子そのものの働きが無視できない状況になってきました。本プロジェクトでは、遺伝子制御に関わる機能性RNAやRNA結合蛋白質およびRNA関連酵素に焦点をあて、RNAレベルで制御される新しいメカニズムの解明を目的とします。またこの研究を通して、遺伝情報制御および成立過程に関わる分子進化的な考察を行います。さらに、これらの知見を基盤として、生命の起源、進化、遺伝子制御について考察していきます。
  

Career 【 Display / hide 】

Career 【 Display / hide 】

• 1990.10

  -

  1992.10

  米国国立衛生研究所(NIH) ,博士訪問研究員

• 1992.11

  -

  1996.03

  (財)東京都臨床医学総合研究所 ,研究員

• 1996.04

  -

  2001.03

  科学技術振興事業団ERATOプロジェクトグループリーダー及び技術参事

• 2001.04

  -

  2006.03

  大学助教授(有期)(環境情報学部・先端生命科学研究所）

• 2006.04

  -

  Present

  大学教授（環境情報学部・先端生命科学研究所）

Academic Background 【 Display / hide 】

Academic Background 【 Display / hide 】

• 1985.03

  Waseda University, Faculty of Education

  University, Graduated

• 1987.03

  Waseda University, Graduate School, Division of Science and Engineeri

  Graduate School, Completed, Master's course

• 1990.03

  The University of Tokyo, Graduate School, Division of Pharmaceutical Scienc, 生命薬学専攻

  Graduate School, Completed, Doctoral course

Academic Degrees 【 Display / hide 】

Academic Degrees 【 Display / hide 】

• 薬学　, The University of Tokyo, 1990.03

Research Areas 【 Display / hide 】

Research Areas 【 Display / hide 】

• Genome biology

• Molecular biology (Molecular Biology)

• Evolutionary biology

Research Keywords 【 Display / hide 】

Research Keywords 【 Display / hide 】

• Non-codingRNA, transfer RNA, Archaea, RNA-related enzymes, Genetic code

Research Themes 【 Display / hide 】

Research Themes 【 Display / hide 】

• (1) RNA-binding proteins & RNA-related enzymes (2) Non-coding RNAs (3) microRNAs (4) Sense-antisense gene regulation (5) DNA replication (primer RNA processing) (6) Post-transcriptional RNA proce, 

  2001

  -

  Present

Books 【 Display / hide 】

Books 【 Display / hide 】

• Current Advances in the Research of RNA Regulatory Enzymes

  Akio Kanai and Tohru Yoshihisa , Frontiers Media SA, 2019.12

• Genome Invading RNA Networks

  Shohei Nagata, Junnosuke Imai, Gakuto Makino, Masaru Tomita and Akio Kanai, Frontiers Media SA, 2018.05

  Scope: 128-137

• Molecular Biology of the Transfer RNA Revisited

  Akio Kanai, Frontiers Media SA, 2014.12

• Brenner's Encyclopedia of Genetics, 2nd edition

  Fujishima, K. and Kanai, A., Elsevier Academic Press, 2013.04

  Scope: 543-544

• Evolutionary Biology: Exobiology and Evolutionary Mechanisms

  Kanai, A., Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Germany, 2013

  Scope: 181-193

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Papers 【 Display / hide 】

Papers 【 Display / hide 】

• Proteomic and metabolomic analyses uncover sex-specific regulatory pathways in mouse fetal germline differentiation

  Hayashi, Y., Mori, M., Igarashi, K., Tanaka, K., Takehara, A., Ito-Matsuoka, Y., Kanai, A., Yaegasgi, N., Soga, T. and Matsui, Y.

  Biology of Reproduction （Oxford University Press)   2020.07

  Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted

  • Access to Document (DOI)

• Behavioral and brain- transcriptomic synchronization between the two opponents of a fighting pair of the fish Betta splendens.

  Vu, T.-D., Iwasaki, Y., Shigenobu, S., Maruko, A., Oshima, K., Iioka E., Huang, C.-L., Abe, T., Tamaki, S., Lin, Y.-W., Chen, C.-K., Lu, M.-Y., Hojo, M., Wang, H.-V., Tzeng, S.-F., Huang, H.-J., Kanai, A., Gojobori, T., Chiang, T.-Y., Sun, H. S., Li, W.-H., and Okada, N.

  PLOS Genetics （PLOS)   2020.06

  Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted

  • Access to Document (DOI)

• Editorial: Current Advances in the Research of RNA Regulatory Enzymes

  Kanai, A. and Yoshihisa, T.

  Frontiers in Genetics （Frontiers)  10 （ 973 ）  2019.10

  Research paper (scientific journal), Joint Work, Accepted

  • Access to Document (DOI)

• Large-scale Molecular Evolutionary Analysis Uncovers a Variety of Polynucleotide Kinase Clp1 Family Proteins in the Three Domains of Life

  Saito, M., Sato, A., Nagata, S., Tamaki, S., Tomita, M., Suzuki, H., and Kanai, A.

  Genome Biology and Evolution （Genome Biology and Evolution)  11 （ 10 ） 2713 - 2726 2019.09

  Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted

  　View Summary

  © 2019 The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. Clp1, a polyribonucleotide 5′-hydroxyl kinase in eukaryotes, is involved in pretRNA splicing and mRNA 3′-end formation. Enzymes similar in amino acid sequence to Clp1, Nol9, and Grc3, are present in some eukaryotes and are involved in prerRNA processing. However, our knowledge of how these Clp1 family proteins evolved and diversified is limited. We conducted a large-scale molecular evolutionary analysis of the Clp1 family proteins in all living organisms for which protein sequences are available in public databases. The phylogenetic distribution and frequencies of the Clp1 family proteins were investigated in complete genomes of Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya. In total, 3,557 Clp1 family proteins were detected in the three domains of life, Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Many were from Archaea and Eukarya, but a few were found in restricted, phylogenetically diverse bacterial species. The domain structures of the Clp1 family proteins also differed among the three domains of life. Although the proteins were, on average, 555 amino acids long (range, 196-2,728), 122 large proteins with >1,000 amino acids were detected in eukaryotes. These novel proteins contain the conserved Clp1 polynucleotide kinase domain and various other functional domains. Of these proteins, >80% were from Fungi or Protostomia. The polyribonucleotide kinase activity of Thermus scotoductus Clp1 (Ts-Clp1) was characterized experimentally. Ts-Clp1 preferentially phosphorylates single-stranded RNA oligonucleotides (Km value for ATP, 2.5 μM), or single-stranded DNA at higher enzyme concentrations. We propose a comprehensive assessment of the diversification of the Clp1 family proteins and the molecular evolution of their functional domains.

  • Access to Document (DOI)

• Systematic analysis of the binding surfaces between tRNAs and their respective aminoacyl tRNA synthetase based on structural and evolutionary data

  Tamaki, S., Tomita, M., Suzuki, H. and Kanai, A.

  Frontiers in Genetics （Frontiers in Genetics)  8 （ 227 ）  2018.01

  Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted

  　View Summary

  © 2018 Tamaki, Tomita, Suzuki and Kanai. To determine the mechanism underlying the flow of genetic information, it is important to understand the relationship between a tRNA and its binding enzyme, a member of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) family. We have developed a novel method to project the interacting regions of tRNA-aaRS complexes, obtained from their three-dimensional structures, onto two-dimensional space. The interacting surface between each tRNA and its aaRS was successfully identified by determining these interactions with an atomic distance threshold of 3.3 Å. We analyzed their interactions, using 60 mainly bacterial and eukaryotic tRNA-aaRS complexes, and showed that the tRNA sequence regions that interacted most strongly with each aaRS are the anticodon loop and the CCA terminal region, followed by the D-stem. A sequence conservation analysis of the canonical tRNAs was conducted in 83 bacterial, 182 archaeal, and 150 eukaryotic species. Our results show that the three tRNA regions that interact with the aaRS and two additional loop regions (D-loop and TψC-loop) known to be important for formation of the tRNA L-shaped structure are broadly conserved. We also found sequence conservations near the tRNA discriminator in the Bacteria and Archaea, and an enormous number of noncanonical tRNAs in the Eukaryotes. This is the first global view of tRNA evolution based on its structure and an unprecedented number of sequence data.

  • Access to Document (DOI)

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Papers, etc., Registered in KOARA 【 Display / hide 】

Papers, etc., Registered in KOARA 【 Display / hide 】

• Impact of RNA biology on life science in the 21st century

  Kanai, Akio

  Keio SFC journal （慶應義塾大学湘南藤沢学会)  15 （ 1 ） 204 - 221 2015

  ISSN  13472828

• Genome wide analysis of translation efficiency by local structure of mRNA and nascent peptide

  Kanai, Akio

  科学研究費補助金研究成果報告書 2014

• Identification and biochemical characterization of RNA ligases in archaea

  Kanai, Akio

  科学研究費補助金研究成果報告書 2012

• Development of metabolomics technology and its application to the prediction of novel metabolic pathways

  Kanai, Akio

  科学研究費補助金研究成果報告書 2009

Reviews, Commentaries, etc. 【 Display / hide 】

Reviews, Commentaries, etc. 【 Display / hide 】

• Editorial: Current Advances in the Research of RNA Regulatory Enzymes

  Kanai A., Yoshihisa T.

  Frontiers in Genetics (Frontiers in Genetics)  10 2019.10

  • Access to Document (DOI)

• Correction: Distinct requirements for energy metabolism in mouse primordial germ cells and their reprogramming to embryonic germ cells (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2017) 114 (8289-8294) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1620915114)

  Hayashi Y., Otsuka K., Ebina M., Igarashi K., Takehara A., Matsumoto M., Kanai A., Igarashi K., Soga T., Matsui Y.

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America)  115 ( 30 )  2018.07

  ISSN  00278424

  　View Summary

  © 2018 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Correction to Supporting Information for “Distinct requirements for energy metabolism in mouse primordial germ cells and their reprogramming to embryonic germ cells,” by Yohei Hayashi, Kei Otsuka, Masayuki Ebina, Kaori Igarashi, Asuka Takehara, Mitsuyo Matsumoto, Akio Kanai, Kazuhiko Igarashi, Tomoyoshi Soga, and Yasuhisa Matsui, which was first published July 17, 2017; 10.1073/pnas.1620915114 (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 114: 8289–8294). The authors note that, in the SI Appendix, the units "fmol/mm3" in the Fig. S2 legend, Fig. S4, Fig. S5, and Dataset S1 should have instead appeared as "nmol/mm3." The authors also note that in Fig. S4A, row 3, column 2, the tick marks along the vertical axis appeared incorrectly. The SI Appendix has been corrected online.

  • Access to Document (DOI)

Research Projects of Competitive Funds, etc. 【 Display / hide 】

Research Projects of Competitive Funds, etc. 【 Display / hide 】

• 微生物生態系による原子炉内物体の腐食・変質に関する評価研究

  2019.10

  -

  2020.12

  文部科学省, 英知を結集した原子力科学技術・人材育成事業 国際協力型廃炉研究プログラム（廃炉加速化研究プログラム）, 金井昭夫, Elena Shagimardanova, Research grant, Principal Investigator

  　View Summary

  高放射能環境でも一部の微生物は繁殖する。また、高放射能に繰り返し曝されることにより、放射能耐性を獲得する。福島第一原子力発電所（1F）事故では、定常的に微生物を含んだ地下水が流れ込んでおり、その内部に微生物群集が形作られている可能性が高い。このことから、1F敷地内外の地下水や放射能汚染水のメタゲノム解析により、それらの微生物群集の実態（生物種の群集構造と発現遺伝子プロファイル）を明らかにする。微生物群集の代謝反応経路を推定することにより、微生物生態系の原子炉内構造物に対する影響を調べ、微生物により燃料デブリや構造材（コンクリート、鉄材など）の腐食・変性が促進される可能性を検討する。それらを基に、微生物群集の制御に関する指針を提案するとともに、定常的な生物環境モニタリングのための拠点形成を進める。

• 多様性を有するRNAキナーゼの進化情報解析とその情報に基づいた酵素機能の改変

  2017.04

  -

  2020.03

  MEXT,JSPS, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, 金井　昭夫, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Principal Investigator

Awards 【 Display / hide 】

Awards 【 Display / hide 】

• 「平成29年度『科研費』審査委員」表彰

  金井昭夫, 2017.09, 独立行政法人 日本学術振興会

  Country： 日本

  　View Description

  科学研究費助成事業の審査に関し、有意義な審査意見を付したことによる

Courses Taught 【 Display / hide 】

Courses Taught 【 Display / hide 】

• SPECIAL RESEARCH PROJECT B

  2020

• SEMINAR B

  2020

• MASTER SEMINAR

  2020

• INDEPENDENT RESEARCH

  2020

• GRADUATION PROJECT 2

  2020

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Courses Previously Taught 【 Display / hide 】

Courses Previously Taught 【 Display / hide 】

• GENOMIC MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 1

  Keio University, 2018, Spring Semester, Major subject, Lecture

• ADVANCED MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY

  Keio University, 2018, Autumn Semester, Major subject

• ADVANCED RESEARCH (SYSTEMS BIOLOGY)

  Keio University, 2018, Autumn Semester

• GENOMIC MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2

  Keio University, 2018, Autumn Semester, Major subject

• CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK (SYSTEMS BIOLOGY)

  Keio University, 2018, Spring Semester, Major subject

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Memberships in Academic Societies 【 Display / hide 】

Memberships in Academic Societies 【 Display / hide 】

• RNA Society

  　

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

  　

• American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

  　

• 日本分子生物学会

  　

• 日本生化学会

  　

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