Computational Biology Research Center[CBRC]

released on 12th May, 2008

　Toutai MITUYAMA (ex. Taishin KIN), Ph.D. and colleagues of Computational Biology Research Center (CBRC); a department of National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) (Tsukuba, Japan) have contributed, as in charge of bioinformatic analysis, to the recent discovery and analysis of endogenous siRNA(esiRNA)s in a fruit fly which is a collaborative research lead by prof. Haruhiko Siomi and associate prof. Mikiko Siomi (School of Medicine, Keio University). The endogenous siRNAs are speculated that they suppress retro-transposons which can cause fatal corruption of genes in a germ cell.
　This study is expected to contribute to unveiling largely covert mechanisms of small RNAs in a living organism. This study is financially supported, in part, by the Functional RNA Project funded by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) (Kanagawa, Japan). This study is published as an advanced online publication of Nature (Nature Publishing Group); a high impact scientific journal on May 7, 2008 (GMT).