Laboratory of BioResource

Faculty

Research Summary

Teleosts comprise about half of all vertebrate species and adapt to a variety of environments, including sea-water, fresh water, the bottom of deep seas, and small creeks and paddy fields. Analysis of their genome structure is important to understand the adaptation and diversification in this interesting group. Medaka is a small egg-laying “secondary” fresh water fish found in brooks and rice paddies in Eastern Asia. This species has a long history as an experimental animal, especially in Japan. Our laboratory has conducted a comparative genomic analysis focusing mainly on fish chromosomes and gene evolution using medaka and other fishes. In addition to these activities, our laboratory is stepping ahead to lead the National BioResource Project Medaka (NBRP Medaka).

Figure 1. Medaka provided from NBRP Medaka

Website

Reports

• Annual Report 2008(PDF)

Selected Publications

Takehana, Y., Naruse, K., Hamaguchi S., and Sakaizumi, M. (2007). Evolution of ZZ/ZW and XX/XY sex-determination systems in the closely related medaka species, Oryzias hubbsi and O. dancena. Chromosoma, 116, 463-470.

Kasahara, M., Naruse, K., Sasaki, S., et. al., (2007). The medaka draft genome and insights into vertebrate genome evolution. Nature, 446, 714-719.

Takehana, Y., Naruse, K., and Sakaizumi, M. (2005). Molecular phylogeny of the medaka fishes genus Oryzias (Beloniformes: Adrianichthyidae) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 36, 417-428.

Naruse, K., Tanaka, M., Mita, K., Shima, A., Postlethwait, J., and Mitani, H. (2004). A medaka gene map: The trace of ancestral vertebrate protochromosomes revealed by comparative gene mapping. Genome Res., 14, 820-828.

Naruse, K., Hori, H., Shimizu, N., Kohara, Y., and Takeda, H. (2004). Medaka genomics: a bridge between mutant phenotype and gene function. Mech. Dev., 121, 619-628.