RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences Laboratory for Functional Non-coding Genomics

Team Leader: Yuka Iwasaki (Ph.D.)

Japanese Page

Research Summary

One of the significant achievements of recent transcriptome research is elucidating the importance of "non-coding genomic regions" that do not encode proteins. In diverse eukaryotes, non-coding genomic regions occupy huge portions of the genome. They include non-coding RNAs that do not code for proteins but perform various functions as RNAs and transposons that have the property of transposing or jumping around the genome. We aim to understand diseases, including developmental disorders, from new perspectives by clarifying and regulating the functional mechanisms of non-coding genomic regions.

Main Research Fields

Biology

Related Research Fields

Informatics
Complex Systems
Biological Sciences
Molecular biology-related
Genome biology-related
System genome science-related

Keywords

Non-coding RNA
Transposable element
Epigenetic regulation
Omics analysis
RNA biology

Selected Publications

Papers with an asterisk(*) are based on research conducted outside of RIKEN.

1. Takeuchi C, Yokoshi M, Kondo S, Shibuya A, Saito K, Fukaya T, Siomi H, Iwasaki YW.
"Mod(mdg4) variants repress telomeric retrotransposon HeT-A by blocking subtelomeric enhancers"
Nucleic Acids Research, 50: 11580-11599 (2022)
2. *Iwasaki YW, Sriswasdi S, Kinugasa Y, Adachi J, Horikoshi Y, Shibuya A, Iwasaki W, Tashiro S, Tomonaga T, Siomi H.
"Piwi–piRNA complexes induce stepwise changes in nuclear architecture at target loci"
The EMBO Journal, 40: e108345 (2021)
3. *Hasuwa H, Iwasaki YW, Au Yeung WK, Ishino K, Masuda H, Sasaki H, Siomi H.
"Production of functional oocytes requires maternally expressed PIWI genes and piRNAs in golden hamsters"
Nature Cell Biology, 23: 1002-1012 (2021)
4. *Murano K, Iwasaki YW, Ishizu H, Mashiko A, Shibuya A, Kondo S, Adachi S, Suzuki S, Saito K, Natsume T, Siomi MC, Siomi H.
"Nuclear RNA export factor variant initiates piRNA‐guided co‐transcriptional silencing"
The EMBO Journal, 38: e102870 (2019)
5. *Nishida KM, Sakakibara K, Iwasaki YW, Yamada H, Murakami R, Murota Y, Kawamura T, Kodama T, Siomi H, Siomi MC.
"Hierarchical roles of mitochondrial Papi and Zucchini in Bombyx germline piRNA biogenesis"
Nature, 555: 260-264 (2018)
6. *Iwasaki YW, Murano K, Ishizu H, Shibuya A, Iyoda Y, Siomi MC, Siomi H, Saito K.
"Piwi modulates chromatin accessibility by regulating multiple factors including Histone H1 to repress transposons"
Molecular Cell, 63: 408–419 (2016)
7. *Sato K, Iwasaki YW, Shibuya A, Carninci P, Tsuchizawa Y, Ishizu H, Siomi MC, Siomi H.
"Krimper enforces an antisense bias on piRNA pools by binding AGO3 in the Drosophila germline"
Molecular Cell, 59: 553–563 (2015)
8. *Iwasaki YW, Siomi MC, Siomi H.
"PIWI-interacting RNA: its biogenesis and functions"
Annual Review of Biochemistry, 84: 405-433 (2015)
9. *Hirano T, Iwasaki YW, Lin ZY, Imamura M, Seki NM, Sasaki E, Saito K, Okano H, Siomi MC, Siomi H.
"Small RNA profiling and characterization of piRNA clusters in the adult testes of the common marmoset, a model primate"
RNA, 20: 1223-1237 (2014)
10. *Iwasaki YW, Kiga K, Kayo H, Fukuda-Yuzawa Y, Weise J, Inada T, Tomita M, Ishihama Y, Fukao T.
"Global microRNA elevation by inducible Exportin 5 regulates cell cycle entry"
RNA, 19: 490-497 (2013)

Lab Members

Principal investigator

Yuka Iwasaki: Team Leader

Core members

Sefan Asamitsu: Research Scientist
Aoi Shibuya: Technical Staff I
Hiromi Yamada: Postdoctoral Researcher

Contact Information

1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku,
Yokohama City, Kanagawa,
230-0045, Japan
Email: yiwasaki [at] riken.jp