Chief Scientist Laboratories Cellular Memory Laboratory
Chief Scientist: Yoichi Shinkai (Ph.D.)
Research Summary

Our laboratory's principal objective is to understand the molecular mechanism of epigenetic gene regulation and the role of epigenetics in health and disease. To address these topics, we take multidisciplinary approaches, including molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, structural biology and mouse molecular genetics.
Main Research Fields
- Biology
Related Research Fields
- Biological Sciences
- Molecular biology
Keywords
- Epigenetics
Selected Publications
Papers with an asterisk(*) are based on research conducted outside of RIKEN.
- 1.Ferry L#. Fournier A#. Tsusaka T#. Adelmant G. Shimazu T. Matano S. Kirsh O. Amouroux R. Dohmae N. Suzuki T. Filion G.J. Deng W. de Dieuleveult M. Lauriane Fritsch L.1, Kudithipudi S. Jeltsch A. Leonhardt H. Hajkova P. Marto J.A. Arita K. Shinkai Y*. and Defossez P-A*.:
"Methylation of DNA Ligase 1 by G9a/GLP recruits UHRF1 to replicating DNA and regulates DNA methylation"
Mol Cell, 67(4):550-565.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2017.07.012 (2017) - 2.Shirai A#. Kawaguchi T#. Shimojo H. Muramatsu D. Ishida-Yonetani M. Nishimura Y. Kimura H. Nakayama J*. and Shinkai Y*.:
"Impact of nucleic acid and methylated H3K9 binding activities of Suv39h1 on its heterochromatin assembly"
Elife. 6. pii: e25317. doi: 10.7554/eLife.25317 (2017) - 3.Shimazu, T., Barjau, J., Sohtome, Y., Sodeoka, M. and Shinkai, Y*.:
"Selenium-based S-adenosylmethionine analog reveals the mammalian seven-beta-strand methyltransferase METTL10 to be an EF1A1 lysine methyltransferase."
PLOS ONE, 9:e105394. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105394 (2014) - 4.*Kuroki, S., Matoba, S., Akiyoshi, M., Matsumura, Y., Miyachi, H., Mise, N., Abe, K., Kanai, Y., Ogura, A., Wilhelm, D., Koopman, P., Nozaki, M., Shinkai, Y*. and Tachibana, M*.:
"Epigenetic regulation of mouse sex determination by the histone demethylase Jmjd1a."
Science, 341:1106-1109 (2013) - 5.*Deguchi, K., Nagamatsu, G., Miyachi, H., Kato, Y., Morita, S., Kimura, H., Kitano, S., Hatada, I., Saga, Y., Tachibana. M. and Shinkai.Y*.:
"Posttranscriptional regulation of histone lysine methyltransferase GLP in embryonic male germ cells."
Biol. Reprod., 88:1-8 (2013) - 6.*Matsui, T., Leung, D., Miyashita, H., Maksakova, I.A., Miyachi, H., Kimura, H., Tachibana, M., Lorincz, M.C*. and Shinkai, Y*.:
"Proviral silencing in embryonic stem cells requires the histone methyltransferase ESET."
Nature, 464:927-931 (2010) - 7.*Inagaki, T., Tachibana, M., Magoori, K., Kudo, H., Tanaka, T., Okamura, M., Naito, M., Kodama, T., Shinkai, Y*. and Sakai, Y*.:
"Obesity and metabolic syndrome in histone demethylase JHDM2a deficient mice."
Genes to Cells, 14:991-1001 (2009) - 8.*Tachibana M*., Matsumura Y., Fukuda M., Kimura H. and Shinkai Y*.:
"G9a/GLP complexes independently mediate H3K9 and DNA methylation to silence transcription."
EMBO J., 27:2681-2690 (2008) - 9.*Tachibana, M., Ueda, J., Fukuda, M., Takeda, N., Ohta, T., Iwanari, H., Sakihama, T., Kodama, T., Hamakubo, T. & Shinkai, Y*.:
"Histone methyltransferases G9a and GLP form heteromeric complexes and are both crucial for methylation of euchromatin at H3-K9."
Gene Dev., 19:815-826 (2005) - 10.*Tachibana, M., Sugimoto, K., Nozaki, M., Ueda, J., Ohta, T., Ohki, M., Fukuda, M., Takeda, N., Niida, H., Kato, H. and Shinkai, Y*.:
"G9a histone methyltransferase plays a dominant role for euchromatic histone H3 lysine 9 methylation and is essential for early embryogenesis."
Genes and Development, 16:1779-1791 (2002)
Recent Research Results
Sep. 17, 2021
A genetic brain disease reversed after birthNov. 10, 2017
The workings of a gene silencer
Annual research report
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Yoichi Shinkai
- Chief Scientist
Core members
- Tadahiro Shimazu
- Senior Research Scientist
- Akeo Shinkai
- Senior Research Scientist
- Ayumi Yamada
- Research Scientist
- Atsuko Shirai
- Research Scientist
- Yui Watanabe
- Student Trainee
- Megumi Gowa
- Student Trainee
- Chikako Shimura
- Technical Staff II
- Kayako Nishimura
- Technical Staff II
- Ayane Kataoka
- Technical Staff II
- Mika Ichihashi
- Assistant
- Aguri Ono
- Research Part-time Worker II
Contact Information
2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
Email: yshinkai [at] riken.jp