Hideyuki TANABE Associate Professor

The genomes of eukaryotes are folded into the structure “chromosome territories”, we can see the whole genomes of each species by observing the chromosomes. I am focused on the interphase chromosomes and how those chromosomes are spatially organized into the cell nucleus and what kind of regulatory factors are involved in the spatial positioning of chromosomes and genes by molecular cytogenetic approaches such as FISH (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization) techniques. The interphase chromosomes are occupied within the cell nucleus as “chromosome territories” that are highly compartmentalized, mutually exclusive, and radially positioned in correlation with their physical sizes and gene densities. It is known that several dynamic spatial movements of chromosome territories and/or genes during embryogenesis, cellular differentiation, changes of physiological environment, tumorigenesis, and ageing in addition to that chromosomal translocations are due to their spatially relative chromosome positioning during the course of evolution. However, the molecular mechanisms are still not yet understood.

Then I am studying by the following techniques, multi-color FISH (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridzation), 3D-FISH, 3C (Chromosome Conformation Capture), microdissection for chromosome spreads, and genome editing for analyses of chromosomal evolution and spatial organization of chromosome territories and genes within the cell nucleus using cultured cell lines derived from humans, primates, mammals, and birds including primary cultured cells, tumor cells, stem cells, and embryos.