Media Center
A multimedia mosaic of moments at GIST
GIST Excellence
GIST Research Team led by Prof. Kim Young-Joon
- 강호종
- REG_DATE : 2010.04.05
- HIT : 1184
Prof. Kim Young-Joon published the papaer on
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA
Prof. Kim Yong-Joon
Clarified an Important Clue to the Evolution Process of ‘Biological Molecular Switch Controlling the Mating Instinct"
Mating behavior of drosophilae is an important behavior model of how a gene is programming behavior and has been a major study subject of neuro-geneticists for a long time.
Especially, the behavioral change of female drosophilae before and after mating is very peculiar. Before mating, female drosophilae actively react and respond to the mating with male drosophilae showing courting behavior. However, female drosophilae show totally different behavioral pattern during a week after mating, when the females aggressively decline the courting of males, take in high-protein nutrient food and start to lay lots of eggs.
Such female behavioral change occurs when the biological molecular switch is growing bigger by ‘Sex peptide’, one of the sperm proteins contained in the male sperm. The research team led by professor Kim Yong-Joon (Dept. of Bio-Science) found ‘Sex peptide Receptacle’ as the biological molecular switch in 2008, clarified the change mechanism of drosophilae’s reproduction behavior and published in the
Brain cells (A,B) revealing MIP, newly known as acting in the sex peptide receptacle, a biological molecular switch controlling drosophilae’s mating behavior
(C) Mating behavior of drosophilae, courtesy of Macmillan Publishers Ltd (copyright)
However, the study result in 2008 left a major mystery in the evolutionary correlative relations between ‘sex peptide’ and ‘sex peptide receptacle’. That is, while biological molecular switch ‘sex peptide’ almost mostly are found in the genetic body of invertebrate animals including insects, ‘sex peptide’ that plays a role of activating biological molecular switch are only found in some genetic bodies of drosophilae. If so, what kind of signal-transmitting protein will activate ‘sex peptide receptacle’ in other animals except drosophilae
To find the answer to this question, GIST Research Team led by prof. Kim Yong-Joon found MIP, a new protein activating ‘sex peptide receptacle’ through the joint research with IMP Research Team in Vienna,Austria.Theydiscoveredthatthisproteinisfoundineveryanimalkindwith‘sexpeptidereceptacle
"differentfrom‘sexpeptide’,yetitperformscompletelydifferentfunctionthan‘sexpeptide’.
The study result showed that the evolution is possible so that one biological molecular switch can control two completely different instincts and in such evolution process, signal-transmitting proteins (sex peptide and MIP) switched on by switch-controlled instinct have been differently evolved.
Such discovery was evaluated to disclose major clue to understand the evolutionary process of mechanism in which instinct-controlling biological molecular proteins are operated and was published in the