Living in Space
Integral Understanding of life-regulation mechanism from "SPACE"

Elucidation of molecular machinery essential for extremotolerant ability in tardigrades – Publicly Invited Research 2016－2017

1. A01 Akiyama
2. A01 Ochi
3. A01 Chatani
4. A01 Seiki
5. A01 Nikawa
6. A01 Kawakami
7. A01 Tomita
8. A01 Honda

1. A02 Shinohara
2. A02 Maekawa
3. A02 Ohgami
4. A02 Nishimura
5. A02 Kawano
6. A02 Iwase
7. A02 Furuichi
8. A02 Myung
9. A02 Kitamura

1. A03 Nakamura
2. A03 Harada
3. A03 Ide
4. A03 Shirai
5. A03 Kakinuma

1. B01 Lazarus
2. B01 Miwa
3. B01 Kunieda
4. B01 Shimada
5. B01 Kitaya
6. B01 Sawano

Research Subject	Elucidation of molecular machinery essential for extremotolerant ability in tardigrades
Research Group Leader	Takekazu Kunieda Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo Website http://www.biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/users/saibou/kuma/ (*Written in Japanese)

Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are small aquatic animals living in various habitats. They enter an almost completely dehydrated state upon desiccation and exhibit exceptional tolerance against various physical extremes, including direct exposure to space. Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the exceptional tolerant ability of tardigrades will provide invaluable knowledge to overcome various environmental stresses during stays in space. In this project, we use three different tardigrade species as models, ranging from a very sensitive species to the toughest species, and sort out the tolerance-related genes by comparing various omics data among these species. The roles of identified genes will be revealed by both loss of function and gain of function experiments.