TOMITA Kozo
(Professor/Division of Biosciences)
Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences/RNA Biology
Career Summary
1993: Graduated from Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo
1998: Received engineering doctorate from University of Tokyo
1998-1999: PostDoc (Institut de biologie moleculaire des plantes, Strasbourg, CNRS
Strasbourg, France)
1999-2000: PostDoc (Yale University, Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, New Haven, United States)
2000-2002: PostDoc (University of Washington Seattle, Department of Biochemistry
Seattle, United States)
2002-2004: PostDoc, Assistant Professor (University of Tokyo, Department of Integrated Biosciences)
2004-16: Research Group Leader (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Biomedical Research Institute)
2016: Professor (University of Tokyo, Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences)
Literature
1) Yamashita S. and Tomita K.: Mechanism of 3'-matured tRNA discrimination from 3'-immature tRNA by class-II CCA-adding enzyme, Structure, Vol. 24, in press, 2016.
2) Yamashita S., Martinez A., and Tomita K.: Measurement of acceptor-TPC helix length of tRNA for terminal A76-addition by A-adding enzyme, Structure, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 830-842, 2015.
3) Yamashita S., Takeshita D., and Tomita K.: Translocation and rotation of tRNA during template-independent RNA polymerizaion by tRNA nucleotidyltransferase, Structure, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 315-325, 2014.
4) Takeshita D., Yamashita S., and Tomita K.: Mechanism for template-independent terminal adenylation activity of Qb replicase, Structure, Vol. 20, No. 10, pp. 1661-1669, 2012.
5) Takeshita D. and Tomita K.: Molecular basis for RNA polymerization by Qb replicase, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 229-237, 2012.
6) Toh Y., Takeshita D., Nagaike T., Numata T., and Tomita K.: Mechanism for the alternation of the substrate specificities of template-independent RNA polymerases, Structure , Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 232-243, 2011.
7) Takeshita D. and Tomita K.: Assembly of Qβ viral RNA polymerase with host translational elongation factors EF-Tu and -Ts, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, Vol. 107, No. 36, pp. 15733-15738, 2010.
8) Toh Y., Takeshita D., Numata T., Fukai S., Nureki O., and Tomita K.: Mechanism for the definition of elongation and termination by the class II CCA-adding enzyme. EMBO J. vol. 28, No 21, pp3353-3365, 2009
9) Toh Y, Numata T, Watanabe K, Takeshita D, Nureki O, *Tomita K: Molecular basis for maintenance of fidelity during the CCA-adding reaction by a CCA-adding enzyme, EMBO J., Vol. 27, No. 14, pp. 1944-1952, 2008.
10) Watanabe K., Toh Y., Suto K., Shimizu Y., Oka N., Wada T., and Tomita K.: Protein-based peptide-bond formation by aminoacyl-tRNA protein transferase, Nature, Vol. 449, No. 7164, pp. 867-871, 2007.
11) Suto K., Shimizu Y., Watanabe K., Ueda T., Fukai S., Nureki O., and Tomita K.: Crystal structures of leucyl/phenylalanyl-tRNA-protein transferase and its complex with an aminoacyl-tRNA analog, EMBO J., Vol. 25, No. 24, pp. 5942-50, 2006.
12) Tomita K., Ishitani R., Fukai S., and Nureki O.: Complete crystallographic analysis of the dynamics of CCA sequence addition, Nature, Vol. 443, No. 7114, 956-960, 2006.
13) Tomita K., Fukai S., Ishitani R., Ueda T., Takeuchi N., Vassylyev D.G., and Nureki O.: Structural basis for template-independent RNA polymerization, Nature, Vol. 430, No. 7000, 700-704, 2004.
14) Okabe M., Tomita K., Ishitani R., Ishii R., Takeuchi N., Arisaka F., Nureki O., and Yokoyama S.: Divergent evolutions of trinucleotide polymerization revealed by an archaeal CCA-adding enzyme structure, EMBO J., Vol. 22, No. 21, pp. 5918-5927, 2003.
15) Li F., Xiong Y., Wang J., Cho H.D., Tomita K., Weiner A.M., and Steitz T.A.: Crystal structures of the Bacillus stearothermophilus CCA-adding enzyme and its complexes with ATP or CTP, Cell, Vol. 111, No. 6, pp. 815-824, 2002.
16) Tomita K. and Weiner A.M..: Collaboration between CC- and A-adding enzymes to build and repair the 3'-terminal CCA of tRNA in Aquifex aeolicus, Science, Vol. 294, No. 5545, pp. 1334-1336, 2001.
17) Tomita K., Ogawa T., Uozumi T., Watanabe K., and Masaki H.: A cytotoxic ribonuclease which specifically cleaves four isoaccepting arginine tRNAs at their anticodon loops, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA., Vol. 97, No. 15, pp. 8278-8283, 2000.
18) Ogawa T., Tomita K., Ueda T., Watanabe K., Uozumi T., and Masaki H.: A cytotoxic ribonuclease targeting specific transfer RNA anticodons, Science, Vol. 283, No. 5410, pp. 2097-2100, 1999.