We attempt to understand the mechanisms of symbiosis using experiomental evolutionary approaches.
Last updated: September 26, 2023
PROJECT
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project aims at bringing about breakthroughs in our understanding of symbiosis, by making use of our novel insect-E. coli and mammal-E. coli experimental symbiotic systems, and also by applying the recent genome engineering technologies, thereby focusing on the diversity and commonality of the symbiotic mechanisms encompassing invertebrates and vertebrates.
MESSAGE
Here we are aiming at achieving an ultimate form of understanding of the evolution of symbiosis by experimentally establishing symbiotic associations between the model bacterium, E. coli, and invertebrate and vertebrate model animals, insects and mice, thereby observing, describing and analyzing the processes and mechanisms of the real-time symbiotic evolution in detail.
RESEARCH GROUPS
NEWS
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #26
Dr. Harald Gruber-Vodicka (Kiel University, Germany)
“Symbiosis as a driver of placozoan biology?”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #25
Dr. Michael Baym (Harvard Medical School, USA)
“Acellular pressures on plasmid evolution”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #24
Prof. Gregg Howe（Michigan State University, USA）
“Hormones from lipids: Control of plant-biotic interactions by jasmonate”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #23
Dr. Federica Calevro (BF2i lab, INRAE – INSA Lyon, University of Lyon, France)
“Evolutionarily conserved metazoan pathways have evolved new functions in the context of symbiotic interactions”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #22
Prof. Michele Nishiguchi (University of California Merced, USA)
“Interpreting the road map between ecological and molecular boundaries using a squid-bacterial mutualism”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #21
Dr. Filip Husnik (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, Japan)
“Organellogenesis: Provide, Divide, and Rule”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #20
Prof. Colin Dale (The University of Utah, USA)
“Utilizing Sodalis-allied symbionts to probe evolutionary and molecular questions in symbiosis”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #19
Prof. Ehab Abouheif（McGill University, Canada)
“How ants and bacteria became one”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #18
Dr. Philipp Engel（University of Lausanne, Switzerland）
“Specialized gut microbiota-host interactions in social bees”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #17
Dr. Angad Mehta（University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA）
“Directed endosymbiosis for evolutionary studies and synthetic biology”
The following paper was published in Nature Microbiology.
Koga R, Moriyama M, Onodera-Tanifuji N, Ishii Y, Takai H, Mizutani M, Oguchi K, Okura R, Suzuki S, Gotoh Y, Hayashi T, Seki M, Suzuki Y, Nishide Y, Hosokawa T, Wakamoto Y, Furusawa C, Fukatsu T. (2022) Single mutation makes Escherichia coli an insect mutualist.
Nature Microbiology 7(8): 1141-1150.
The following News and Views in Nature Microbiology highlighted Koga et al. (2022).
Kaltenpoth M. (2022) Fast track mutualism. Nature Microbiology 7: 1104-1105.
The following video is uploaded to the YouTube channel “ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project”.
“Symbiont-containing “egg-covering jelly” of urostylidid stinkbugs”
The following video is uploaded to the YouTube channel “ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project”.
“Welcome to Our Laboratories 〜ERATO Research Centers〜”