KUNITOMO Hirofumi


國友 博文 （くにとも ひろふみ）
KUNITOMO Hirofumi

KUNITOMO Hirofumi
Title Associate Professor
Affiliation Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry (UG), Department of Biological Sciences (GR), Graduate School of Science
E-mail
Room 226, Faculty of Science Bldg.3
TEL +81-3-5841-4404　|　24404（ext.）


Research Field

Molecular Genetics, Neuroscience

Research Subject

Molecular and neural mechanisms of an experience-dependent chemotaxis of <i>C. elegans</i>.

Current Research

We are interested in the molecular mechanisms as to how an experience-dependent adaptive behavior is generated. With a simple nervous system consisting of 302 neurons, the soil nematode <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> memorizes the salt concentration of previous cultivation and modulates navigation behavior on a salt gradient: adult wild-type animals are attracted to the salt concentration at which they have been fed, whereas they avoid it if they have been starved. Amenability of modern genetic methods allows us to identify and characterize genes and molecules that are required for the memory-dependent behavior.

Keywords

Learning and memory, Chemotaxis, <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>, Genetic screens, Optogenetics, Live-cell imaging

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