Takao Kondo | |
|---|---|
 Kondō in 2019 | |
| Born | 1948 (1948) |
| Died | (aged 75) |
| Alma mater | Nagoya University |
| Known for | Cyanobacterial clock proteins,kaiA,kaiC |
| Awards | Japan Academy Prize (2014) Asahi Prize (2007) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biology,Chronobiology |
| Institutions | Nagoya University National Institute for Basic Biology |
Takao Kondo (近藤 孝男,Kondō Takao; 1948 – 16 November 2023) was a Japanese biologist and professor ofbiological science atNagoya University inNagoya, Japan. He is best known for reconstituting thecircadian clockin vitro.
Kondo was born in 1948 inKariya, Aichi, Japan, and received his B.S. in 1970 and his Ph.D. inBiology in 1977 fromNagoya University.[1] He was appointed an assistant professor at theNational Institute for Basic Biology inOkazaki, Aichi, Japan in 1978.[1] Kondo began work as a visiting scholar atHarvard University in 1985, then continued his work abroad atVanderbilt University between 1990 and 1991. It was at Vanderbilt University that Kondo began his research on the circadian clock ofcyanobacteria.[2] Kondo returned toNagoya University as a professor at the Graduate School of Science in 1995.[3] Kondo served as Dean of the School of Science from 2006 to 2009 and President of the Institute for Advanced Research of Nagoya University from 2007 to 2013. Kondo held the title of Designated Professor and Professor Emeritus of Nagoya University.[4][5] Kondo died from pneumonia on 16 November 2023, at the age of 75.[6]
Kondo was best known for his discoveries surrounding the molecular basis of the cyanobacteria circadian clock. Prior to Kondo's work in the late 1980s, controversy surrounding the existence of a biological clock in bacteria. Since bacteria divide rapidly and several times per day, it was thought that there was no necessity to evolve a biological clock in bacteria.[7]Promoter-trap andmicroarray analysis performed by Kondo in thecyanobacteriaSynechococcus revealed that many, if not all, genes displayed a rhythmic, circadian component to their expression.[7] Kondo next employed aforward genetics approach and developed aluciferasereporter system to identify clock mutants in Synechococcus. Mutations that altered circadian behavior were grouped in a single region of the Synechococcus genome.[1] From this observation, Kondo discovered the gene clusterkaiABC as acircadianfeedback process in cyanobacteria in 1998.[8] In 2002, Kondo demonstrated thatkaiA-stimulatedkaiC phosphorylation is necessary for circadian timing loops in cyanobacteria.[7] In 2005, Kondo succeeded in reconstituting the circadian oscillation of cyanobacterialkaiCphosphorylationin vitro.[9] Kondo's seminal 2005 discovery was the first example of a recapitulated biological rhythm in a test tube, mimicked rhythms observed in eukaryotic cells, and disproved the universal necessity of thetranscription-translation autoregulatory feedback loop.[7] Kondo's characterization ofkaiABC behavior provided a molecular mechanism by which proteins respond to changes in time and enabled the fields of bacterial genetics and quantitative biochemistry to aid investigation of the biological clock.[10]
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