Decoding evolution by understanding the mechanism of genomic readout

Faculty

Research Summary

Our group aims to infer the molecular-level history of complex life, based on molecular phylogenetic approaches to evolutionarily dissecting biodiversity with increasing knowledge of cellular events from genome-wide profiling. We mainly focus on vertebrates including elusive wild species with unique phenotypes. Our interests are categorized into these themes.

1) Elucidating the evolutionary history of genomes by cross-species comparisons
2) Decoding genome evolution mechanisms taking cellular events into account
3) Improving genome-wide data acquisition and analysis methods

The FoxG group of genes analyzed as a proxy of the whole genome. These genes have different retention patterns (A), evolutionary rates of the genes and flanking genomic regions (B and C, respectively), and embryonic expression domains (D, in catshark embryos). Their inter-relationship and its orchestration within a genome remain largely unexplored and belong to our laboratory’s theme.

Selected Publications

Kuraku S, Kaiya H, Tanaka T, Hyodo S. Evolution of Vertebrate Hormones and Their Receptors: Insights from Non-Osteichthyan Genomes. Annu Rev Anim Biosci. 2023 Feb 15;11:163-182.

Kuraku S. Shark and ray genomics for disentangling their morphological diversity and vertebrate evolution. Dev. Biol. 2021 Sep; 477: 262-272. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2021.06.001
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012160621001433

Uno Y, Nozu R, Kiyatake I, Higashiguchi N, Sodeyama S, Murakumo K, Sato K, Kuraku S. Cell culture-based karyotyping of orectolobiform sharks for chromosome-scale genome analysis. Commun Biol. 2020 Nov 6;3(1):652.

Hara Y, Yamaguchi K, Onimaru K, Kadota M, Koyanagi M, Keeley SD, Tatsumi K, Tanaka K, Motone F, Kageyama Y, Nozu R, Adachi N, Nishimura O, Nakagawa R, Tanegashima C, Kiyatake I, Matsumoto R, Murakumo K, Nishida K, Terakita A, Kuratani S, Sato K, Hyodo S, Kuraku S. Shark genomes provide insights into elasmobranch evolution and the origin of vertebrates. Nat Ecol Evol. 2018 Nov;2(11):1761-1771. doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0673-5. Epub 2018 Oct 8.