I. GENERAL STATEMENT

National Institute of Genetics (NIG) was established 48 years ago as a center for genetics research. Major contribution of NIG in the research in genetics, in particular population genetics, plant genetics and molecular and developmental genetics, has made it one of the distinguished centers with worldwide recognition. In 1984, NIG was reorganized into an Inter-university Research Institute to promote collaborative activities. Together with seven inter-university research institutes, we founded the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in 1988. We serve as Department of Genetics of the Graduate School of Life Science. We have at present about 30 graduate students and about ten special research students from other universities, including those from abroad. This year, 10 students obtained Ph.D. In addition, we have nine post-doctoral fellows of the center of excellence program. The steady flow of young scientists is important to constantly rejuvenating our research activities.
We have been carrying out several research-related services. The DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) is one of the three central data banks in the world that gather, annotate, store and distribute information on DNA sequences. Our institute also stores and distributes various organisms with genetically characterized traits. Among them, services with Escherichia coli, mice, rice and Drosophila are particularly significant. These service activities will continue to develop in the coming years. Recent development of new technology using various model organisms has enhanced the importance of genetics as bases of biology. Therefore, it is timely that we established Genetic Strains Research Center and Genetic Resource Information Center. Our institute is uniquely suited for pursuing cooperative work with scientists of various disciplines by sharing the genetic resources.
This year, we sponsored NIG International Symposium on "Gene Functions to Cell Differentiation" organized by Junichi Tomizawa, former Director-General. We invited 21 foreign guests and 25 Japanese speakers. We also utilized this occasion to present many contributions from our Institute, and asked for comments, advice and reviews as to our activities. The reviewer's critical comments are being used to make our new future plan to improve our standard. We sincerely hope that with guidance from people in and outside NIG and further support from governmental and private sources, we will be able to lead the institute into a more successful future.
Junichi Tomizawa who introduced radical innovations retired at the end of September 1997, and Yoshiki Hotta was elected as a new Director-General. I consider that the contribution of Junichi Tomizawa in modernizing the Institute cannot be overstated. He paved a road for us to maintain our prestigious position in the genetics research. Indeed, most of the works reported here are accomplished under the guidance of the former Director-General.
In the past year we also saw a number of changes in the staff of the institute. Makio Tokunaga joined as associate professor of Structural Biology Center. Dr. Kensuke Horiuchi, Division of Microbial Genetics and Dr. Tomoko Ohta, Division of Population Genetics, retired at the end of March. Promoted as research associates are, Masataka Okabe (Div. of Developmental Genetics) and Tetsuichiro Saito (Genetic Strain Research Center). On the other hand, the following members left NIG to take new positions to extend their career. Among them are Kenji Izuhara (Kyusyu Univ.), Atsushi Higashitani (Tohoku Univ.), Yasuo Ina (Biomol. Eng. Res. Inst.), Hideo Goto (Nat. Inst. Animal Health), Kengo Kanamaru (Univ. of Tokyo) and Ken-ichi Matsumoto (Hokkaido Univ.). In the Department of Administration, Hitoshi Sunada succeeded to the Dept. Head, and Hideo Kuroda moved to Nagasaki Univ.


Yoshiki Hotta