Gene regulation by the sound

Project Gist

Do cells recognize the sound?

Keywords

Cell, Sound, Gene, Genetics

Background and Purpose

Do cells recognize the sound? Starting from this simple question, we challenged this protoscience field to uncover relationships between life and sound. Although cells are known to recognize many environmental stimulations including temperature, pressure and light in addition to the material things, almost no research has been done on the sound (audible acoustic wave). We aimed to understand cellular response to the sound mainly through the gene expression analyses, by a close collaboration among life science and acoustic engineering fields.

Project Achievements

We have succeeded to detect genetic responses triggered by audible sound stimulation. Comparative analyses using different sounds, cell types, and conditions, revealed a wave profile-specific and cell type-specific response of several genes. This is the first study systematically analyze a cellular response triggered by the sound, although further studies are needed to clarify whether the sound itself is recognized by the cells or the sound energy transferred into the heat or vibration affect the cellular activities.

Future Prospects

More detailed and multifaceted researches will be performed to reveal novel aspect of the relationships between life and sound.

Figure

Principal Investigator