The Zoological Society of Japan Board of Directors, following the deliberation results of the Narishige Zoological Science Promotion Award Selection Committee and after careful review, has decided this year's award recipients as follows.
Yoshitaka Hamanaka
Genes governing the differentiation of peptidergic neurons dimm morphological functional analysis
Reason for the 2013 Narishige Zoological Science Award presentation to Mr. Yoshitaka Hamanaka
Hamanaka used Drosophila photoreceptor cells as experimental material to study the function of genes governing the differentiation of peptidergic neurons, and successfully obtained clear conclusions by skillfully combining ultrastructural and functional analyses. In normal chemical synapses within the brain (which mediate fast information transmission), neurotransmitters are contained in small, electron-lucent synaptic vesicles, whereas neuropeptides, which have slow neuromodulatory functions, are contained in large dense-core vesicles. These differ not only in function, but also in the processes of vesicle formation and release. Hamanaka investigated transcription regulatory factors in Drosophila photoreceptor cellsdimmforced expression of [it] resulted in synapses that in the wild type possessed small synaptic vesicles and performed fast chemical synaptic transmission as photoreceptor cells coming to possess large dense-core vesicles, an extremely interesting research finding that was published. Furthermore, they proved that by co-expressing a peptide gene therein, the peptide comes to be contained in the large dense-core vesicles, and that the physiological functions as photoreceptor cells also change. This indicates that through the introduction of a single gene, neurons that perform fast chemical synaptic transmission can be differentiated into peptidergic cells, and the gene dimmThis strongly suggests that it is a master gene controlling differentiation into peptide-secreting cells, which is also of great zoological interest. Thus, this study is highly original, holds promise for further progress in the future, and is well-worthy of the Narishige Zoological Science Award.
