Office: 843-792-6949
Lab: 843-792-8906
Fax: 843-792-8568
Email: hama@musc.edu
BSB-518C

Research Interests

The research in our laboratory focuses on a class of sphingolipids containing 2-hydroxy fatty acids (hFA-sphingolipids). hFA-sphingolipids are uniquely abundant in myelin in the mammalian nervous system. We have demonstrated that the enzyme fatty acid 2-hydroxylase (FA2H) is responsible for the biosynthesis of myelin hFA-sphingolipids in both the central and peripheral nervous systems. Our current projects are aimed at elucidating the roles of FA2H and hFA-sphingolipids in myelination and glial cell signaling. We utilize gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, gene silencing, primary cell cultures, and knockout mouse models, among other techniques.

Selected Publications

• Ponnusamy, S., Alderson, N.L., Hama, H., Bielawski, J., Jiang, J.C., Bhandari, R., Snyder, S.H., Jazwinski, M., and Ogretmen, B. (2008) Regulation of telomere length by fatty acid elongase 3 in yeast: Involvement of inositol phosphate metabolism and ku70/80 function.  J. Biol. Chem. in press
• Maldonado, E.N., Alderson, N.L., Monje, P.V., Wood, P.M., and Hama, H. (2008) "FA2H is responsible for the formation of 2-hydroxy galactolipids in peripheral nervous system myelin" , J. Lipid Res. 49, 153-161.
• Uchida, Y., Hama, H. Alderson, N.L., Douangpanya, S., Wang, Y., Crumrine, D.A., Elias, P.M., and Holleran, W.M. (2007) "Fatty acid 2-hydroxylase, encoded by FA2H, accounts for differentiation-associated increase in 2-OH ceramides during keratinocyte differentiation", J. Biol. Chem 282, 13211-13219.
• Vasireddy, V., Uchida, Y., Salem, N., Kim, S.Y., Mandal, M.N., Reddy, G.B., Bodepudi, R., Alderson, N.L., Brown, J.C., Hama, H. Dlugosz, A., Elias, P.M., Holleran, W.M., Ayyagari R. (2007) "Loss of functional ELOVL4 depletes very long-chain fatty acids (>C28) and the unique ?-O-acylceramides in skin leading to neonatal death", Hum. Mol. Genet. 16, 471-482.
• Alderson, N.L., Maldonado, E.N., Kern, M.J., Bhat, N.R., and Hama, H. (2006) "FA2H-dependent fatty acid 2-hydroxylation in postnatal mouse brain", J. Lipid Res 47: 2772-2780.
• Alderson, N.L., Walla, M.D. and Hama, H. (2005), "A novel method for measurement of in vitro fatty acid 2-hydroxylase activity in biological samples by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry ", J. Lipid Res.. 46:1569-1575
• Strahl, T., Hama, H., DeWald, D.B., and Thorner, J. (2005) "Yeast phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase, Pik1, has essential roles at the Golgi and in the nucleus". J. Cell Biol. 171: 967-979

• Alderson, N.L., Rembiesa, B.M., Walla, M.D., Bielawska, A., Bielawski, J., Hama, H. (2004) The Human FA2H Gene Encodes a Fatty Acid 2-Hydroxylase. J. Biol. Chem. 279: 48562-48568

• Hama, H., Torabinejad, J., Prestwich, G.D., DeWald, D.B. (2004) Measurement and immunofluorescence of cellular phosphoinositides. Methods Mol Biol. 2004;284:243-258

• Shaw, J.D., Hama, H., Sohrabi, F., DeWald, D.B., and Wendland, B. (2003) PtdIns(3,5)P2 is Required for Delivery of Endocytic Cargo into the Multivesicular Body. Traffic, 4:479-490.
• Budovskaya, Y.V., Hama, H., DeWald, D.B. and Herman, P.K. (2002) "The C-terminus of the Vps34p PI 3-kinase is necessary and sufficient for the interaction with the Vps15p protein kinase." J. Biol. Chem., 277: 287-294.
• Ha, S.-A., Bunch, J.T., Hama, H., DeWald, D.B. and Nothwehr, S.F. (2001) "A novel mechanism for localizing membrane proteins to the yeast trans-Golgi network requires function of a synaptojanin-like protein" Mol. Biol. Cell,12: 3175-3190.
• DeWald, D.B., Torabinejad, J., Jones, C.A., Shope, J.C., Cangelosi, A.R., Thompson, J.E., Prestwich, G.D., and Hama, H. (2001), "Rapid accumulation of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate correlates with calcium mobilization in salt-stressed Arabidopsis", Plant Phys. 126: 759-770.
•  Hama, H., Young, D., Radding, J., Stock, S. D., and Takemoto, J. Y. (2000), "Requirement of sphingolipid alpha-hydroxylation for fungicidal action of syringomycin E", FEBS Lett. 478: 26-28.
• Stock, S.D., Hama, H., Radding, J.A., Young, D.A., and Takemoto, J.Y. (2000), "Syringomycin E inhibition of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Requirement for biosynthesis of sphingolipids with very long fatty acids and mannose and phosphoinositol containing head groups", Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 44: 1174-1180.
•  Hama, H., Takemoto, J.Y., and DeWald, D.B. (2000), "Analysis of phosphoinositides in protein trafficking", Methods: A Companion to Methods in Enzymology 20: 465-473.
• Hama, H., Schnieders, E.A., Thorner, J., Takemoto, J.Y., and DeWald, D.B. (1999), "Direct involvement of phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate in secretion in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae", J. Biol. Chem. 274: 34294-34300.
• Tall, G.G., Hama, H., DeWald, D.B., and Horazdovsky, B.F. (1999), "The phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate binding protein Vac1p interacts with a Rab GTPase and a Sec1p homologue to facilitate vesicle-mediated vacuolar protein sorting", Mol. Biol. Cell 10: 1873-1889.
• Hama, H., Tall, G.G. and Horazdovsky, B.F. (1999), "Vps9p is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor involved in vesicle-mediated vacuolar protein transport", J. Biol. Chem. 274: 15284-15291.
• Stock, S.D., Hama, H., DeWald, D.B., and Takemoto, J.Y. (1999), "SEC14-dependent secretion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: non-dependence on sphingolipid synthesis-coupled diacylglycerol production", J. Biol. Chem. 274: 12979-12983.