University of Tokyo

About: University of Tokyo is a education organization based out in Tokyo, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 134564 authors who have published 337567 publications receiving 10178620 citations. The organization is also known as: Todai & Universitas Tociensis.

Genome-wide association of IL28B with response to pegylated interferon-alpha and ribavirin therapy for chronic hepatitis C.

Abstract: Masashi Mizokami and colleagues report a genome-wide association study to hepatitis C treatment response in two Japanese cohorts. They report common variants at IL28B associated with sustained as well as null virologic response following pegylated interferon-alpha and ribavirin combined therapy.

HDAC6 is a microtubule-associated deacetylase

Abstract: Reversible acetylation of α-tubulin has been implicated in regulating microtubule stability and function1. The distribution of acetylated α-tubulin is tightly controlled and stereotypic. Acetylated α-tubulin is most abundant in stable microtubules but is absent from dynamic cellular structures such as neuronal growth cones and the leading edges of fibroblasts1,2. However, the enzymes responsible for regulating tubulin acetylation and deacetylation are not known. Here we report that a member of the histone deacetylase family, HDAC6, functions as a tubulin deacetylase. HDAC6 is localized exclusively in the cytoplasm, where it associates with microtubules and localizes with the microtubule motor complex containing p150glued (ref. 3). In vivo, the overexpression of HDAC6 leads to a global deacetylation of α-tubulin, whereas a decrease in HDAC6 increases α-tubulin acetylation. In vitro, purified HDAC6 potently deacetylates α-tubulin in assembled microtubules. Furthermore, overexpression of HDAC6 promotes chemotactic cell movement, supporting the idea that HDAC6-mediated deacetylation regulates microtubule-dependent cell motility. Our results show that HDAC6 is the tubulin deacetylase, and provide evidence that reversible acetylation regulates important biological processes beyond histone metabolism and gene transcription.

KEGG: integrating viruses and cellular organisms.

Abstract: KEGG (https://www.kegg.jp/) is a manually curated resource integrating eighteen databases categorized into systems, genomic, chemical and health information. It also provides KEGG mapping tools, which enable understanding of cellular and organism-level functions from genome sequences and other molecular datasets. KEGG mapping is a predictive method of reconstructing molecular network systems from molecular building blocks based on the concept of functional orthologs. Since the introduction of the KEGG NETWORK database, various diseases have been associated with network variants, which are perturbed molecular networks caused by human gene variants, viruses, other pathogens and environmental factors. The network variation maps are created as aligned sets of related networks showing, for example, how different viruses inhibit or activate specific cellular signaling pathways. The KEGG pathway maps are now integrated with network variation maps in the NETWORK database, as well as with conserved functional units of KEGG modules and reaction modules in the MODULE database. The KO database for functional orthologs continues to be improved and virus KOs are being expanded for better understanding of virus-cell interactions and for enabling prediction of viral perturbations.