Previous lab news 2019

3rd and 4th December 2019
Takashi Toda attended the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan (日本分子生物学会年会）held in Fukuoka. He presented a poster and also acted as a chairperson in the forum session. In the forum, which was organised by IIRS (NPO in which Dr Masako Osumi is president), Dr Makoto Miyata (professor at Osaka City University) gave a talk.

The title of the poster:
Surprising collaboration between microtubule polymerising and destabilising factors in spindle length control
（正しいスピンドル長を規定する微小管重合・脱重合因子の意外な協調関係）

Authors:
Takashi Toda, Corinne Pinder, Yuzy Matsuo, Shakil Ahmed and Masashi Yukawa

The title of a talk by Professor Miyata
Motility of Mycoplasma, the smallest organism – Mechanism and origin –
（最小生物，マイコプラズマの運動能 -メカニズムと起源-）

(Photo, from the right, Dr Susumu Kawamoto (co-chair), Dr Makoto Miyata and Dr Masako Osumi)

25th November 2019
A new paper was published from Takashi Toda and Masashi Yukawa group. This work was achieved through collaborations performed by three research teams in Hiroshima University (Toda and Yukawa), Iwate University (Ken-ichi Kimura) and RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (Hiroyuki Koshino).

Authors: Naoaki Kurisawa, Masashi Yukawa, Hiroyuki Koshino, Takumu Onodera, Takashi Toda and Ken-ichi Kimura
Titile: Kolavenic acid analog restores growth in HSET-overproducing fission yeast cells and multipolar mitosis in MDA-MB-231 human cells

Journal: Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2019.115154

日本語

8th November 2019
Takashi Toda attended the15th IIRS anniversary symposium held at Tokyo University. IIRS (綜合画像研究支援) is an NPO that was founded 15 years ago by Dr Masako Osumi.
In this symposium, he acted as a chairperson for a talk given by Dr Haruko Hirose (Teijin Co.) and also gave a poster presentation.

The title of the poster:
Analysis of structure and function of microtubules by live cell imaging using fluorescence microscopy and TIRF microscopy
(蛍光顕微鏡ライブイメージング及び全反射照明蛍光顕微鏡（TIRF）を用いた微小管構造・機能の解析)
The authors:
Takashi Toda and Masashi Yukawa

Photos
In front of the poster
Dr Mami Konomi (Hitachi High-Technology Co.)

Left: Dr Yoshinori Osumi (a Nobel laureate and professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Middle: Dr Akihiko Nakano (Senior Scientist at Riken-Wako)
Left: Dr Akihiko Nakano (Senior Scientist at Riken-Wako) and Right: Dr Masako Osumi (President of IIRS)

24th and 25th October 2019
Takashi Toda attended the 37th Yeast Workshop held at Kumamoto University, and gave an oral talk and a poster presentation.

The title:
Fission yeast Kinesin-6/Klp9 promotes spindle elongation during anaphase B in motor-dependent and independent manners
(分裂酵母６型キネシンKlp9 はモーター依存性と非依存性の２つの別個の機能により微小管伸長を促進する)

Authors
Takashi Toda, Yasuhiro Teratani, Corinne Pinder, Ken’ya Furshuta, Masashi Yukawa
(登田隆, 寺谷康宏, Corinne Pinder, 古田健也, 湯川格史)

One of the photos was taken with Dr. Norio Gunge (Prof. Emeritus Sojo University).

15th October 2019
A new research paper based upon International collaboration between Takashi Toda’s group and the Francis Crick Institute (London, UK) was published in International Journal of Molecular Sciences online. This article belongs to the Special Issue “Mechanism of Chromosome Segregation in Eukaryotes”.
This work is partly supported by “Program For Fostering Globally Talented Research” JSPS grant (S2902/JPMX05S2900002). Dr Corinne Pinder stayed in Takashi Toda’s laboratory in 2018 (January-May) to carry out this collaborative work.

Authors
Masashi Yukawa, Tomoki Kawakami, Corinne Pinder and Takashi Toda

The title
Two XMAP215/TOG Microtubule Polymerases, Alp14 and Dis1, Play Non-Exchangeable, Distinct Roles in Microtubule Organisation in Fission Yeast

Journal
International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2019 : 20(20), 5108

URL
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/20/5108

日本語

3rd October 2019
Takashi Toda and Masaru Ueno met Drs Miguel Godinho and Rita Ferreira in Hiroshima. They visited Japan to attend the 78th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Cancer Association (第７８回日本癌学会学術総会) held in Kyoto. Miguel used to work in the Cancer Research UK, in which Takashi ran the lab. Masaru know Miguel very well as they both have been working on telomeres in fission yeast. Miguel has been working as a lab head/principal investigator in the Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging, Nice in France.

1st October 2019
A new research paper based upon International collaboration between Takashi Toda’s group and the Francis Crick Institute (London, UK) was published in a new issue of Journal of Cell Science. This work is partly supported by “Program For Fostering Globally Talented Research” JSPS grant (S2902). The first author Dr Corinne Pinder stayed in Takashi Toda’s laboratory in 2018 (January-May) to carry out this research project.

Authors
Corinne L. Pinder, Yuzy Matsuo, Sebastian P. Maurer and Takashi Toda

The title
Kinesin-8 and Dis1/TOG collaborate to limit spindle elongation from prophase to anaphase A for proper chromosome segregation in fission yeast

URL
https://jcs.biologists.org/content/132/18/jcs232306.long

Journal
Journal of Cell Science 2019 : 132, 1-15.

日本語

4th-6th September 2019
4 lab members (Takashi Toda, Masashi Yukawa, Mitsuki Ohishi and Yasuhiro Teratani) attended 52nd annual meeting of Yeast Genetic Society of Japan held in Shizuoka City Shimizu Cultural Hall MARINART and presented their works.

Oral talk

Yasuhiro Teratani: Novel functions of fission yeast Kinesin-5/Cut7 during cell cycle M phase（分裂酵母5型キネシンCut7の細胞周期M期における新規機能）

Mitsuki Ohishi: Functional analysis of a novel RNA-binding protein Nrp1 in fission yeast（分裂酵母の新規RNA 結合タンパク質Nrp1の機能解析）

Masashi Yukawa: Dual roles of fission yeast Kinesin-6/Klp9 in the spindle formation and elongation during anaphase B（M期後期の紡錘体形成・伸長における分裂酵母6型キネシンKlp9の役割）

Takashi Toda: Crosstalk between factors involved in microtubule polymerization and depolymerization to ensure proper spindle length（正確なスピンドル長を規定する微小管重合・脱重合因子のクロストーク）

Lower photo: from the left, Yoshikazu Ohya (Former President of YGSJ, The University of Tokyo), Takashi Toda, Yasuhiro Teratani, Mitsuki Ohishi, Masashi Yukawa

19th August 2019
A new research paper based upon International collaboration between Takashi Toda’s group and the Francis Crick Institute (London, UK) was published in the Journal of Cell Science online. This work is partly supported by “Program For Fostering Globally Talented Research” JSPS grant (S2902). The first author Dr Corinne Pinder stayed in Takashi Toda’s laboratory in 2018 (January-May) to carry out this research project.

Authors
Corinne L. Pinder, Yuzy Matsuo, Sebastian P. Maurer and Takashi Toda

The title
Kinesin-8 and TOG collaborate to limit spindle elongation from prophase to anaphase A for proper chromosome segregation

Abstract
High-fidelity chromosome segregation relies on proper microtubule regulation. Kinesin-8 has been shown to destabilise microtubules to reduce metaphase spindle length and chromosome movements in multiple species. XMAP215/chTOG polymerases catalyse microtubule growth for spindle assembly, elongation and kinetochore-microtubule attachment. Understanding of their biochemical activity has advanced but little work directly addresses the functionality and interplay of these conserved factors. We utilised the synthetic lethality of fission yeast kinesin-8 (Klp5-Klp6) and XMAP215/chTOG (Dis1) to study their individual and overlapping roles. We found that the non-motor kinesin-8 tailbox is essential for mitotic function; mutation compromises plus-end-directed processivity. Klp5-Klp6 induces catastrophes to control microtubule length and surprisingly, Dis1 collaborates with kinesin-8 to slow spindle elongation. Together, they enforce a maximum spindle length for a viable metaphase-anaphase transition and limit elongation during anaphase A to prevent lagging chromatids. Our work provides mechanistic insight into how kinesin-8 negatively regulates microtubules and how this functionally overlaps with Dis1 and highlights the importance of spindle length control in mitosis.

URL
https://jcs.biologists.org/content/early/2019/08/17/jcs.232306

Journal
Journal of Cell Science 2019 : jcs.232306 doi: 10.1242/jcs.232306

Publication of this work was announced in the Web sites of Hiroshima University at https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/ilife/research/biotechnology/topics (Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life) and https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/adsm/news/52942 (AdSM).

日本語

13th-18th July 2019
Takashi Toda attended the 10th international fission yeast meeting held in Barcelona, Spain and discussed research projects with Sir Paul Nurse and Dr Kazunori Kume. In the meeting, he gave a special lecture entitled “Pathways leading to mitotic spindle assembly: conventional and new views” as a keynote speaker and also did a poster presentation entitled “Interplay between two mitotic kinesins and the microtubule crosslinker drives spindle elongation during anaphase B”.

日本語

24th June 2019
Takashi Toda attended the joint annual meeting of 71st Japanese Society for Cell Biology and 19th Protein Science Society of Japan, held at Kobe International Conference Center, Kobe.

He conducted both oral and poster presentations.

The title:
“Kinesin 6 Klp9 promotes microtubule elongation during anaphase B through motor-dependent and –independent manners”
(６型キネシンKlp9はM期後期において、モーター依存性と非依存性の２つの別個の機能により微小管伸長を促進する)

Authors:
Takashi Toda, Yasuhiro Teratani, Corinne Pinder, Ken-ya Furuta and Masashi Yukawa
(登田　隆, 寺谷康宏, Corinne Pinder,　古田健也、湯川格史)

14th June 2019
Naoaki Kurisawa, our collaborator in Keio University (formerly a master course student in Professor Ken-ichi Kimura’s laboratory at Iwate University) was awarded the best poster prize at the 18th meeting on the exploration of novel materials (JANPBR). The title of his presentation was “Exploring novel HSET inhibitors from natural products using fission yeast cells overexpressing HSET” (HSET 過剰発現分裂酵母株を用いた新規天然物由来 HSET 阻害剤の探索).

日本語

14th May 2019
A new paper was published from Takashi Toda and Masashi Yukawa group. This work was achieved through collaboration with Hiroshima University (Toda and Yukawa) and Advanced ICT Research Institute, NICT (Ken’ya Furuta).

Authors: Masashi Yukawa, Masaki Okazaki, Yasuhiro Teratani, Ken’ya Furuta, and Takashi Toda
Titile: Kinesin-6 Klp9 plays motor-dependent and -independent roles in collaboration with Kinesin-5 Cut7 and the microtubule crosslinker Ase1 in fission yeast
Journal: Scientific Reports
Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43774-7

日本語

1st May 2019
A paper based upon international collaborations among three nations and five laboratories (Toda/Yukawa-Japan, UC Davis-USA, NIH-USA, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center-USA and Exeter University-UK) was accepted in Bioscience, Biotechnology and Biochemistry, and published online.

Tang, N.H., Fong, C.S., Masuda, H., Jourdain, I., Yukawa, M., and Toda, T. (2019).
Generation of temperature sensitive mutations with error-prone PCR in a gene encoding a component of the spindle pole body in fission yeast.
Biosci Biotechnol Biochem, 1-4.
Abstract

日本語

17 April 2019
Takashi Toda was interviewed by Kazuma Emoto about his research on cell division.
This interview will be broadcasted over the radio on 20th May in the Hiroshima FM programme, called “大窪シゲキ９ジラジ from 9 pm. The interviewer/DJ was Mr Kazuma Emoto (pictured with Takashi) and the director was Mr Takuya Ichikawa (pictured with Takashi and Kazuma). The main listeners of this programme are junior/high school students. During the interview, in response to Kazuma’s various questions, Takashi explained his research in a plain style and talked about his career including how he has become a scientist/researcher.

radio URL:http://hfm.jp/blog/9/radiocampus/

22nd March 2019
Mitsuki Ohishi (M1) and Yasuhiro Teratani (M1) were awarded the best poster prize in the interim poster presentation for Master’s degree.

The titles were:

Mitsuki Ohishi
M期紡錘体形成に必須な分裂酵母cut7変異を抑制するnrp1の解析
Study of the nrp1 gene as a suppressor of the fission yeast cut7 mutation in which mitotic spindle formation is severely impaired

Yasuhiro Teratani
分裂酵母5型キネシンcut7の細胞周期M期における新規機能
Novel functions of fission yeast Kinesin-5/Cut7 during cell cycle M phase

11th March 2019
The 38th HiHA seminar was held at Graduate School of Biomedical & Health Sciences, Hiroshima University.
The speaker:
Dr Frank Uhlmann, Principal Investigator at the Francis Crick Institute in London and Fellow of Royal Society (FRS)
The title:
New Frontier in Chromosome Biology: -from Genome Integrity to Human Diseases-
The hosts:
Satoshi Tashiro (Professor at Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine in Graduate School of Biomedical & Health Sciences)
Takashi Toda (Specially appointed professor at Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter)

日本語

20th February 2019
M2 students (Tomoki and Yusuke) gave a talk in presentation of master’s theses.

The titles were:

Tomoki Kawakami
双極性紡錘体形成における微小管ポリメラーゼ複合体の新規機能
A novel role of the microtubule polymerase complex in bipolar spindle formation

Yusuke Yamada
分裂酵母5型キネシンモーターと拮抗的に機能する因子群の網羅的同定と解析
Comprehensive identification and characterisation of the proteins that antagonise fission yeast Kinesin-5 motor

14th February 2019
B4 students (Ryo and Satoshi) gave a talk in presentation of graduation theses.

The titles were:

Ryo Moriyama
分裂酵母を利用した新規生理活性物質の放線菌からの探索と解析
Screening and characterisation of new anti-fungal compounds derived from Actinomycetes extracts using fission yeast

Satoshi Muto
染色体分配に必須な分裂酵母５型キネシンcut7変異を抑圧する多コピーサプレッサーの取得と解析
Isolation and characterisation of multi-copy suppressors of cut7 mutants defective in fission yeast Kinesin-5