Fumiaki Obata

Temporal changes in amino acid profiles coordinate mosquito physiology and egg maturation in Aedes aegypti - BMC Biology Background Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes utilize host blood to support egg maturation by digesting, absorbing, and metabolizing its components. Among these, amino acids are essential as both signali...

Our new study out @BMC Biology. The first Mosquito study from the lab, driven by a great effort of phd student Yusuke Kato with the hard work of Chisako Sakuma. Amino acid economy meets a blood-sucking insect.
link.springer.com/10.1186/s129...

a tiny contribution from my lab to the great work! Amino acid biology in tumour growth. Congrats! A pint ahead in Melbourne!

Tagging first author @joannaqd.bsky.social and collaborators @obataf-lab.bsky.social

Left: Maximum projection images of elavC155QF>QUAS-prosRi tumor brains stained with Repo and Dpn. The animals were moved from standard food to chemically defined diet (CDD) (top left), CDD minus Leu (top right), CDD minus Ile (bottom left), and CDD minus Met (bottom right) at 72hALH and dissected at 120hALH. Right: Schematic depicting the working model. Nutrient Restriction (NR) inhibits BBB glia expansion, which consequently limits brain tumor growth. The authors show that NR inhibits the expression of fat body and glia-derived Ilp6, causing downregulation of the InR/PI3K pathway in BBB glia. This results in a reduction in Path expression and the downstream mTOR-S6K pathway, causing a slowdown of BBB glial cell cycle progression. Path downregulation and defects in BBB expansion consequently led to a decrease in brain AAs, such as Leu, which hinders brain tumor protein synthesis to slow down tumor growth. Data information: ALH, after larvae hatching.

How does the #tumor #microenvironment modulate sensitivity to nutrient restriction? @chengflylab.bsky.social &co show that this is regulated by the SCL36 amino acid transporter Pathetic at the #BloodBrainBarrier perineural glial cells in #Drosophila #brain tumors @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4ibwXWY

Knockdown of the fly spliceosome component Rbp1(orthologue of SRSF1) extends lifespan Biological regulation is a highly intricate process and involves many layers of complexity even at the RNA level. Alternative splicing is crucial in the regulation of which components of a protein-cod...

Latest exciting work from me and @mirresimons.bsky.social (and the first bit of data from my @vivensa.bsky.social ECR Fellowship) now out as a preprint, looking at effects of knocking down individual spliceosome components on lifespan in vivo: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Manipulating dietary protein and amino acids in the common marmoset Callithrix jacchus impacts circulating metabolites and FGF21 levels - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Manipulating dietary protein and amino acids in the common marmoset Callithrix jacchus impacts circulating metabolites and FGF21 levels

New study out! We developed the protocol for dietary manipulation of protein and amino acids in marmoset! FGF21 induction and taurine drop observed. Achieved by intra-RIKEN collab and the first author Yuka's effort. Here comes Primate Nutritional Biology!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Flies evolved a shock-absorber tissue used during embryonic development The role of tissue that forms between the head and trunk of a fly embryo has been unclear. It turns out that it absorbs forces when nearby cells move and divide.

A long-standing mystery in the development of fly embryos has been resolved

go.nature.com/4nhVxaa

「読み進めるほどに「腹八分目」という漠然とした言葉の奥深さが沁みてくる」
「江戸時代に「腹八分目」と言い表したヒト（貝原益軒）の直感にも感心する、楽しい読書だった」

8/24読売新聞で、奈倉有里さんが小幡史明『「腹八分目」の生物学』をご書評くださいました。☞ iwnm.jp/029735

お陰さまで売れています！

！重版決定！

先月刊行された『「腹八分目」の生物学――健康長寿の食とはなにか』（http://iwnm.jp/029735）、早々に2刷が決定しました！

なお現在、一部ネット書店でカート落ちが発生しております。お近くのリアル書店などで、ぜひお探しいただけますと幸いです。
近日中に電子書籍版も配信開始予定ですので、そちらもぜひご利用ください🐭

Ayano has got her phd in March 2025! She is a postdoc right now

Drosophila research without FlyBase would be untenable. Time for all labs who can afford it to step up.

自分でも気に入っている部分がいくつかあるのですが、そのうちの一つがここのカロリーです。ドーナツはカロリーゼロの衝撃！

＜書評＞長寿のカギは「タンパク質の摂取量」　『「腹八分目」の生物学』小幡史明著 「腹八分目」の戒めは、江戸時代から『養生訓』などで広く知られた健康と長寿のための経験則。20世紀に入り、ラットやミジンコといった動物を使った実験でも、食事制限…

8/3産経新聞で、小幡史明『「腹八分目」の生物学――健康長寿の食とはなにか』（iwnm.jp/029735）が紹介されました：

「気鋭の研究者による「食の科学」の一冊」
「生存戦略とも結びついた食の奥深さに驚かされる」

www.sankei.com/article/2025...

『「腹八分目」の生物学――健康長寿の食とはなにか』（iwnm.jp/029735）著者の小幡史明さんに、岩波書店本社へおいでいただきました！
ご著書と記念撮影です。

ただいま好評発売中。
腹八分目のかたも、つい食べ過ぎちゃうかたも、ぜひどうぞ。

Subcellular quantitative imaging of metabolites at the organelle level - Nature Metabolism Subcellular quantitative analysis has been a long-standing goal of mass spectrometry imaging, but was originally thought to be unattainable. However, recent advances have made organelle-level absolute quantification through mass spectrometry imaging a reality, thanks to the development of nano secondary ion mass spectrometry.

#Throwback 🧪

COMMENT | ‪ Subcellular quantitative imaging of metabolites at the organelle level

@siuzdak.bsky.social‬

＼　本日 ☆ 刊行　／

小幡史明『「腹八分目」の生物学――健康長寿の食とはなにか』（岩波科学ライブラリー）
試し読みなどはこちら！　→ iwnm.jp/029735

長寿の鍵となる栄養素とは。腹八分目で、老化そのものも防げるか。不老長寿の薬は……！？ 飽くなき探究をいきいきと伝える。

※電子書籍は8月配信予定です。

Liver FGF21 mediates sex-specific adaptation to juvenile protein malnutrition Dietary protein sufficiency during childhood is essential for healthy growth and tissue development. Chronic protein deficiency leads to stunting, height-for-age more than two standard deviations belo...

📢 New preprint:
“Liver FGF21 mediates sex-specific adaptation to juvenile protein malnutrition”
Led by @ameliejoly.bsky.social, co-supervised with @francoisleulier.bsky.social.
We’re proud to share this story.
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Nutrient sensing and signalling of specific amino acids: Insights from Drosophila study Maintaining amino acid (AA) homeostasis is necessary for organisms. To achieve this, organisms have evolved various signalling pathways regulated by s…

A new review from the lab is out. A phd student Ayano and me summerises the current view of amino acid signalling, revealed by Drosophila genetics. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Thank you so much! Hope Hina will not be too busy on revision...!

Images from the linked preprint showing Wingless stainings in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc. Targeting vps15 with two indepependent RNAi lines (paper also shows the same with a third line) does not result in a phenotype. In contrast, targeting vps15 with two independent sgRNA constructs and Cas9 results in strong accumulation of Wingless protein in perturbed cells.

Why use #CRISPR in #Drosophila when RNAi works so well? Because for some genes well is not good enough.

Check out new preprint from the lab demonstrating a role for Vps15 in Wingless trafficking. Something that was missed in several RNAi screens.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

CRISPR mutagenesis is also not perfect. A common limitation is generation of genetic mosaics, where only some cells carry gene knockouts. But our new generation of tools substatially improves on that. Described in the preprint below with flies on their way to VDRC:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

De novo serine biosynthesis is protective in mitochondrial disease Jackson et al. show that serine becomes an essential amino acid in mitochondrial muscle disease, delaying disease progression. Blocking local biosynthesis of serine challenges cellular phospholipid ho...

De novo serine biosynthesis is protective in mitochondrial disease: Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports...

New stem cell model sheds light on human amniotic sac development Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have developed a new stem cell model of the mature human amniotic sac, which replicates development of the tissues supporting the embryo from two to four wee...

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-05... by Clare Green @crick.ac.uk

Taurine from tumour niche drives glycolysis to promote leukaemogenesis - Nature The taurine–taurine transporter axis is a critical dependency of aggressive myeloid leukaemias.

Taurine from tumour niche drives glycolysis to promote leukaemogenesis

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is figure 3, which shows the molecular signalling network in the hypothalamus that regulates hunger.

Calorie restriction extends lifespan in many animal models, but the effects in humans and the mechanisms of action are not clear. A Review in Nature Reviews Endocrinology summarizes evidence regarding potential adverse effects of calorie restriction. go.nature.com/42XV1Xa 🔒

Dietary protein restriction elevates FGF21 levels and energy requirements to maintain body weight in lean men - Nature Metabolism Dietary protein restriction in healthy, lean men elicits an increased energy intake to maintain body weight, which is driven, at least in part, by FGF21-mediated alterations to adipose tissue mitochondria.

RESEARCH | TS Nicolaisen, B Kiens et al. (UCPH, DK)

Dietary protein restriction in men increases energy intake to maintain body weight partly by FGF21-driven alterations to adipose mitochondria

Dietary amino acid manipulations in the common marmoset Callithrix jacchus impacts serum metabolites and FGF21 levels Restricting dietary protein intake has metabolic and physiological benefits for animals. Rodent studies have identified the involvement of a hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), which is upreg...

We are happy to post our first study using common marmosets! We can now manipulate dietary amino acids in primate! FGF21 is highly responsive to dietary amino acids. Via a fruitful collaboration with Takuya Hayashi lab.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Mitochondria-organelle crosstalk in establishing compartmentalized metabolic homeostasis Mitochondria are metabolic hubs that communicate with other organelles via metabolite-, lipid-, and signaling-molecule exchange facilitated by membrane contact sites (MCSs). MCSs, regulated by tetheri...

Mitochondria-organelle crosstalk in establishing compartmentalized metabolic homeostasis: Molecular Cell www.cell.com/molecular-ce...