Elucidation of the organization mechanism of dynamic higher-ordered structures in biological cells

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The title of this project is elucidation of the organization mechanism of dynamic higher-order structures in biological cells. Here the term "dynamic higher-ordered structures" means mainly membrane-bounded organella in eucaryotic cells, and "elucidation of the organization mechanism" means to understand it so deeply as to reconstitute the organella under artificial conditions. Since dynamic behaviors of intracellular membranous systems can be understood by taking account of their interactions with non-membranous higher-ordered structures, many types of research subject are included in this project. Besides intracellular membrane systems (plasma membrane, nuclear membranes, the inner membrane of mitochondria, the thylakoid membrane of chloroplasts, the sarcoplasmic reticulum of muscle cells, the disk membrane of photoreceptor rod cells, the synaptic vesicle of neurons), non-membrane higher-ordered structures (the cytoskelton, eucaryotic flagella, muscle filaments), special higher-ordered structures (virus, the bacterial flagella motor, the purple membrane of holobacteria) and artificial lipid membranes were studied. We held annual meetings, in which each member of the project was asked to report his research output as well as current topics in a related research field. So many discoveries were presented, and the audience were satisfied to hear what was going on in other fields. Trials to reconstitute some specific higher-ordered structures were reported, but a large fraction of the reports concerned elucidation of biological phenomena at the molecular level. It is pointed out that relevant physicochemical methods for analyzing complicatedly-coupled behaviors of intracellular higher-ordered structures should be developed before achieving fruitful discussion about biological phenomena at the cellular level. We hope that the challenge to reconstitute intracellular higher-ordered structures will lead to production of more important discoveries in future.