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Hiroshi Nakato, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Mailing Address:
University of Minnesota
Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development
6-160 Jackson
321 Church St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
USA
Education:
Ph.D., Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1993
Office:
5-245F Moos Tower
P:612-625-1727
F: 612-626-5652

Email:
nakat003@umn.edu

 Lab:
5-245 Moos Tower
P: 612-624-8499

Areas of Research Strength:

Proteoglycan functions in development
Growth factor signaling
Morphogen gradient formation


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Research Techniques:

Molecular Genetics
Confocal microscopy

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Research Interests:

The Nakato Lab studies how cells communicate with each other during
tissue assembly of multicellular organisms using the fruitfly, Drosophila
as a model. The lab is particularly interested in elucidating the function
of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) in development. HSPGs have
been implicated in a wide variety of biological processes such as growth
factor signaling, cell adhesion, wound healing, and tumor metastasis.
The Nakato Lab is currently focusing on two major projects described below:

1) Proteoglycan functions in morphogen gradient formation
A morphogen is a type of signaling molecule that specifies different
cell fates in a concentration dependent manner. During pattern formation
of the Drosophila wing, Wingless, Hedgehog, and Decapentaplegic have
been shown to function as morphogens. Although the formation of
morphogen gradients is an essential process for patterning and morphogenesis,
the molecular mechanism of morphogen gradient formation remains largely
a mystery. Recent studies have shown that HSPGs are involved in this process.
The long-term goal of this project is to understand how HSPGs regulate secretion,
movement, degradation, and signaling of morphogens to establish and maintain
the gradient.

2) Heparan sulfate fine structure and specificity of HSPG functions
Heparan sulfate chains have markedly heterogeneous structures in which
distinct patterns of sulfation determine the binding specificity for ligand proteins.
These ‘‘fine structures’’ of heparan sulfate are mainly produced by the regulated
introduction of sulfate groups at the N-, 2-O-, 6-O-, and 3-O-positions of the sugar
chain. Recent biochemical, histochemical, and genetic studies have demonstrated
that different fine structures of HS mediate distinct molecular recognition events
to regulate a variety of cellular functions. Another area of our interest is to learn
the molecular basis of growth factor control by the sulfation status of heparan sulfate.


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Selected Publications:

Hayashi, Y., Kobayashi, S., and Nakato, H. (2009) Drosophila glypicans regulate the germline stem cell niche.  J. Cell Biol. 187, 473-480.

Akiyama, T., Kamimura K., Firkus, C., Takeo, S., Shimmi, O., and Nakato, H. (2008) Dally regulates Dpp morphogen gradient formation by stabilizing Dpp on the cell surface. Dev. Biol. 313, 408-419.

Kamimura, K., Koyama, T., Habuchi., H., Ueda, R., Masu, M., Kimata, K., and Nakato, H. (2006) Specific and flexible roles of heparan sulfate modifications in Drosophila FGF signaling. J. Cell Biol. 147, 773-778.

Takeo, S., Akiyama, T., Firkus, C., Aigaki, T., and Nakato, H. (2005) Expression of a secreted form of Dally, a Drosophila glypican, induces overgrowth phenotype by affecting action range of Hedgehog.  Dev. Biol. 284, 204-218.

Kotani N, Kitazume S, Kamimura K, Takeo S, Aigaki T, Nakato H, and Hashimoto Y (2005). Drosophila orthologues of human B-secretase incuce the secretion of a Golgi-resident transferase, heparan sulfate 6-O-sulotransferase. J. Biochem. 137, 315-322.

Adachi-Yamada, T., Harumoto, T., Sakurai, K., Ueda, R., Saigo, K., O'Connor, M.B., and Nakato, H. (2005)  Wing-to-leg homeosis by Spineless causes an apoptosis regulated by Fish-lips, a novel leucine-rich repeats transmembrane protein.  Mol. Cell. Biol. 25, 3140-3150




To view these and other publications visit http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed
search menu should say PubMed
type Nakato H in the avaliable line

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 Last modified on Thursday, November 19, 2009