News and information on ERATO project.
News
2024
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #34
Dr. Nicky Wybouw（Ghent University, Belgium）
“How Wolbachia symbionts spread within haplodiploid mites”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #33
Dr. Joseph Parker (California Inst. Tech., USA)
“Retracing the Evolutionary Steps Towards Symbiosis”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #32
Dr. Aileen Berasategui (Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment, Netherland)
“Origin and evolution of a defensive symbiosis in tortoise beetles”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #31
Prof. Saskia Hogenhout (John Innes Centre, UK)
“Unveiling the Influence of Phytoplasmas: Insights into Extended Phenotypes and Biotechnological Implications”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #30
Prof. Thomas Richards (University of Oxford, UK)
“Insights into mediation between endosymbiotic partners within Paramecium bursaria”
The following video is uploaded to the YouTube channel “ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project”.
“Experimental evolution of microorganisms in laboratory”
The following video is uploaded to the YouTube channel “ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project”.
“Symbiont capsules made by plataspid stinkbugs”
The following video is uploaded to the YouTube channel “ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project”.
“Coevolution of bat flies, endosymbiotic bacteria, and host bats”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #29
Prof. Evan Economo (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, Japan)
“Biodiversity science in the era of big data: treasure maps, trap-jaws, and the metaverse”
The following video is uploaded to the YouTube channel “ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project”.
“Blood-sucking lice and their symbiotic bacteria”
The interview video of Takema Fukatsu, the ERATO Research Director, by Prof. Thomas Bosch (Univ. Kiel, Germany) is on the YouTube.
Interview: Takema Fukatsu, Tokyo/Tsukuba University, Insect-Microbe Symbiotic Systems}
The following video is uploaded to the YouTube channel “ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project”.
“Intracellular symbiotic bacteria of cockroaches”
2023
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #28
Dr. Brian Trevelline (Kent State University, USA)
“Microbiome-mediated phenotypes in wild vertebrates”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #27
Dr. Tom Bourguignon (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, Japan)
“Evolution of termites and cockroaches with their bacterial symbionts”
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”
2022
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〜”
The following video is uploaded to the YouTube channel “ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project”.
“Observation of live microbial cells using microfluidic devices”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #16
Dr. Jillian Petersen (University of Vienna, Austria)
“In symbiosis since the Silurian: Ecology and evolution of host-microbe interactions in marine lucinid clams”
The following videos are uploaded to the YouTube channel “ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project”.
“Gut bacterial symbiosis in stinkbugs”
“Intracellular symbiotic bacteria of aphids”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #15
Dr. Knut Drescher（University of Basel, Switzerland）
"Unicellular and multi-cellular stress responses in bacterial biofilms"
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #14
Dr. Hassan Salem（Max-Planck Institute for Biology, Germany）
"Microbial determinants of folivory in beetles"
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #13
Prof. Nancy Moran（University of Texas at Austin, USA）
"Evolution in Bacterial Gut Symbionts of Social Bees"
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #12
Prof. Christian Kost (University of Osnabrück, Germany)
“On the evolution of mutualistic cooperation within microbial communities”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #11
Prof. Steve Perlman (University of Victoria, Canada)
“A tale of two symbionts: Hidden players in interactions between Drosophila and their nematode parasites”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #10
Dr. Mahesh Desai (Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg)
“Leveraging diet to engineer the gut microbiome”
2021
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #09
Prof. Alex Wilson (University of Miami, USA)
“The Host/Symbiont Interface”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #08
Prof. Thomas Bosch (University of Kiel, Germany)
“Spontaneous body wall contractions shape and stabilize the symbiotic microbiota in Hydra”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #07
Dr. John Beckmann（Auburn University, USA）
“Mechanisms of reproductive parasitism: How CI operons function, evolve, jump, and die”
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #06
Prof. John McCutcheon (Arizona State Univ., USA)
"The origins and endpoints of cell-in-cell symbioses"
The following Perspective in PNAS highlighted Koga et al. (2021).
Wilson A. C. C. (2021) A new protein protects a symbiotic relationship. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118 (30): e2109637118.
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #05
Prof. Martin Kaltenpoth (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany) "Symbiotic microbes as driving forces of evolutionary innovation in beetles"
The following Editor's Choice in Science highlighted Koga et al. (2021).
Ash C. (2021) Symbiosis: Costly symbiont inheritance. Science 373 (6551): 177.
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #04
Prof. Kayla King (Univ. Oxford, UK)
"Microbial protection against infection: an evolutionary perspective"
The following paper was published in PNAS.
Koga R, Tanahashi M, Nikoh N, Hosokawa T, Meng XY, Moriyama M, Fukatsu T (2021) Host’s guardian protein counters degenerative symbiont evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118 (25): e2103957118.
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #03
Prof. John Glass (J. Craig Venter Institute, USA)
"Design, construction, and analysis of a synthetic minimal bacterial cell"
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #02
Dr. Mikhail Tikhonov (Washington Univ. St Louis, USA)
"Phenotypic plasticity across timescales: physiology, ecology and evolution"
ERATO Evolving Symbiosis Project International Seminar Series #01
Dr. Chih-Horng Kuo (Academia Sinica, Taiwan)
"Evolutionary and Functional Genomics of Symbiotic Bacteria"
2020
2019
ERATO FUKATSU Evolving Symbiosis Project Kick-off Meeting (closed) is held at AIST Tsukuba Central, Ibaraki, Japan.