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Molecular Evolution,
Animal Phylogeny and Biogeography
 Yoshinori Kumazawa, Ph. D  Professor of Graduate School of Science  Nagoya City University
Work Address:
Department of Information and Basic Science
& Research Center for Biological Diversity
Graduate School of Science
1 Yamanohata, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8501, JAPAN
<TEL>(Japan 81)-52-872-5844
<FAX>(Japan 81)-52-872-5844
<e-mail>kumansc.nagoya-cu.ac.jp

Brief Personal History:
1980-84   B.S.          Univ. of Tokyo            Industrial Chemistry
1984-86   M.S.          Univ. of Tokyo            tRNA biochemistry and translation
1986-89   Ph.D.         Univ. of Tokyo            "Studies on mitochondrial protein-synthesizing systems"
1990-90   Postdoc.      Tokyo Inst. Technol.      Structure-function relationships on tRNAs
1990-93   Postdoc.      UC Berkeley               Molecular evolution of mitochondrial tRNA genes
1993-00   R.A. Prof.    Nagoya Univ.              Vertebrate phylogeny and mitochondrial genomics
2000-08   A. Prof.    Nagoya Univ.              Vertebrate phylogeny and mitochondrial genomics
2008-       Prof.         Nagoya City University   Molecular evolution, animal phylogeny and biogeography

Research Subjects:
    Our research aims to decipher evolutionary information retained in genomic DNA sequences in order to understand the history of biological evolution in a geological time scale. There have been a variety of organisms living in a variety of environments on earth. They all have made their unique evolutionary history tightly linked to changes in local environments. Such history relates to broad aspects of the phylogeny, biogeography, bio-geo interaction, and evolutionary correlation between molecules and phenotypes.
    We are especially interested in reconstructing the evolutionary history of vertebrates such as reptiles and fishes. We primarily use molecular phylogenetic approaches to establish reliable phylogenetic frameworks with which to interpret independent evolutionary information based on morphological characters and/or fossils. Molecular phylogeny has revolutionarized evolutionary biology and it will continue to enrich our evolutionary understandings.
    Mitochondrial genomes provide very useful information source for this purpose due to a number of reasons including less frequent DNA recombination and gene duplication/deletion. We have been characterizing molecular evolution of mitochondrial genomes and genes of various vertebrates. However, it is also within our scope to decipher evolutionary information from nuclear genomes using new techniques, such as the next generation sequencing.

Recent selected papers:
Johnson J.A., Athrey G., Anderson C.M., Bell D.A., Dixon A., Kumazawa Y., Maechtle T., Meeks G.W., Mindell D., Nakajima K., Novak B., Talbot S., White C., and Zhan X. (2023) Whole-genome survey reveals extensive variation in genetic diversity and inbreeding levels among peregrine falcon subspecies. Ecology and Evolution 13: e10347.

Xiaokaiti X., Hashiguchi Y., Ota H., and Kumazawa Y. (2022) Evolution of the noncoding features of sea snake mitochondrial genomes within Elapidae. Genes 13: 1470.

Kambayashi C., Kakehashi R., Sato Y., Mizuno H., Tanabe H., Rakotoarison A., Künzel S., Furuno N., Ohshima K., Kumazawa Y., Nagy Z.T., Mori A., Allison A., Donnellan S.C., Ota H., Hoso M., Yanagida T., Sato H., Vences M., and Kurabayashi A. (2022) Geography-dependent horizontal gene transfer from vertebrate predators to their prey. Molecular Biology and Evolution 39: msac052.

Matsubara K., Kumazawa Y., Ota H., Nishida C., and Matsuda Y. (2019) Karyotype analysis of four blind snake species (Reptilia: Squamata: Scolecophidia) and karyotypic changes in Serpentes. Cytogenetic and Genome Research 157: 98-106.

Sun Y., Kurisaki M., Hashiguchi Y., and Kumazawa Y. (2017) Variation and evolution of polyadenylation profiles in sauropsid mitochondrial mRNAs as deduced from the high-throughput RNA sequencing. BMC Genomics 18: 665.
Kusuma W.E., Ratmuangkhwang S., and Kumazawa Y. (2016) Molecular phylogeny and historical biogeography of the Indonesian freshwater fish Rasbora lateristriata species complex (Actinopterygii: Cyprinidae): cryptic species and west-to-east divergences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 105:212-223.

Matsubara K., Nishida C., Matsuda Y., and Kumazawa Y. (2016) Sex chromosome evolution in snakes inferred from divergence patterns of two gametologous genes and chromosome distribution of sex chromosome-linked repetitive sequences. Zoological Letters 2: 19.

Oba Y., Ôhira H., Murase Y., Moriyama A., and Kumazawa Y. (2015) DNA barcoding of Japanese click beetles (Coleoptera, Elateridae). PLoS ONE 10(1): e0116612.

Kumazawa Y., Miura S., Yamada C., and Hashiguchi Y. (2014) Gene rearrangements in gekkonid mitochondrial genomes with shuffling, loss, and reassignment of tRNA genes. BMC Genomics 15: 930.

Ratmuangkhwang S., Musikasinthorn P., and Kumazawa Y. (2014) Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of air sac catfishes of the Heteropneustes fossilis species complex (Siluriformes: Heteropneustidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 79: 82-91.

 Link to publication list  Link to newspaper articles (in Japanese)  Link to relevant sites (in Japanese)

To those who are interested in collaborating with me:
    If you are interested in my research area and would like to study with me as a postdoctoral fellow supported from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (whether for the Japanese or for foreigners), please send your communication to my e-mail address written above. If you want to be a graduate student in my lab, I strongly recommend that you obtain fellowship support for your study in Japan in advance (see, e.g., the homepage of Japan Student Services organization). You may contact me in advance for discussing possible projects in my lab.

Society Membership:
Society of Evolutionary Studies, Japan
The Molecular Biology Society of Japan
Palaeontological Society of Japan

Other Academic Activities:
Referees for Molecular Biology and Evolution (MBE), Journal of Molecular Evolution (JME), Gene, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (MPE), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (PNAS), Genes and Genetic Systems (GGS), Zoological Science (ZS) etc.

Updated on August 17, 2023

Link to Graduate School of Science
Link to Nagoya City University