Tetsuya Miyamoto, PhD

Research Assistant Professor

Contact

Molecular and Cellular Medicine
Medical Research & Education Building II, Room 4340
Brayan, TX 77807
miyam001@tamu.edu
Phone: 979.436.9062

Biography

Tetsuya Miyamoto is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department Cell Biology and Genetics. He received his BS of Science from Hokkaido University in 1999 and his MS in Science in 2001 from Nagoya University in Japan. He obtained his PhD in Science from Nagoya University in 2004 working with Dr. Junichi Obokata. Dr. Miyamoto has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University Medical Center under the guidance of Dr. Hubert Amrein. Dr. Miyamoto joined the Department of Cell Biology and Genetics at Texas A&M University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in 2010. He became a faculty member in the department in May 2018.

Research Interests

My research interest is in the field of neuroscience, particularly neurons involved in feeding and metabolism. Energy homeostasis is achieved through the regulation of a number of physiological processes across multiple organ systems. The brain plays a crucial role as an integration center in this regulation by evaluating nutritional status and coordinating appropriate physiological responses through secretion of different neuropeptides. Using fruit flies as a model organism, we investigate the cellular processes that control their ultimate release.
Current projects focus on gluconeogenesis in the fly brain. Gluconeogenesis is a metabolic process to convert small carbon molecules (e.g. lactate, amino acids) into glucose. In human, gluconeogenesis is thought to occur in the liver and kidney for systemic glucose production. However, fruit flies express gluconeogenic genes in a small subset of brain neurons, and their function is to promote neural signaling. Using variety of techniques including functional glucose imaging in single neurons, we aim to identify the cellular mechanisms and biological roles of neuronal gluconeogenesis.

Representative Publications

Miyamoto T. and Amrein H. (2019) Neuronal Gluconeogenesis Regulates Systemic Glucose Homeostasis in Drosophila melanogaster. Curr. Biol. 29, 1263-1272.
Miyamoto T. and Amrein H. (2017) Gluconeogenesis: An ancient biochemical pathway with a new twist. Fly 11, 218-223.
Mishra D., Miyamoto T., Rezenom Y.H., Yavuz A., Slone J., Russell D.H. and Amrein H. (2013) The molecular basis of sugar sensing in Drosophila larvae. Curr. Biol. 23, 1466-1471.
Miyamoto T.*, Chen Y.*, Slone J. and Amrein H. (2013) Identification of a Drosophila glucose receptor using Ca2+ imaging of single chemosensory neurons. PLoS One 8, e56304. (*equal contribution)
Miyamoto T., Slone J., Song X. and Amrein H. (2012) A fructose receptor functions as a nutrient sensor in the Drosophila brain. Cell 151, 1113-1125.
Wang L., Han X., Mehren J., Hiroi M., Billeter J.C., Miyamoto T., Amrein H., Levine J.D. and Anderson D.J. (2011) Hierarchical chemosensory regulation of male-male social interactions in Drosophila. Nature Neurosci. 14, 757-762.
Miyamoto T. and Amrein H. (2008) Suppression of male courtship by a Drosophila pheromone receptor. Nature Neurosci. 11, 874-876.
Miyamoto T., Obokata J. and Sugiura M. (2004) A site-specific factor interacts directly with its cognate RNA editing site in chloroplast transcripts. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 48-52.
Sasaki T., Yukawa Y., Miyamoto T., Obokata J. and Sugiura M. (2003) Identification of RNA editing sites in chloroplast transcripts from the maternal and paternal progenitors of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum): comparative analysis shows the involvement of distinct trans-factors for ndhB editing. Mol. Biol. Evol. 20, 1028-1035.
Miyamoto T., Obokata J. and Sugiura M. (2002) Recognition of RNA editing sites is directed by unique proteins in chloroplasts: Biochemical identification of cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors involved in RNA editing in tobacco and pea chloroplasts. Mol. Cell. Biol. 22, 6726-6734.