Chief Scientist Laboratories Cellular Memory Laboratory

Chief Scientist: Yoichi Shinkai (Ph.D.)

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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)