Research Summary

Research Subjects

• Collection, preservation, quality control, and distribution of microbial strains
• Development of microbial resources for environmental and health researches
• Isolation and characterization of new microbial strains
• Studies on microbial communities and yet-uncultured microorganisms

Selected Publications

• 1.Yuki, M., Sakamoto, M., Nishimura, Y., and Ohkuma, M.:
  ”Lactococcus reticulitermitis sp. nov., isolated from the gut of the subterranean termite Reticulitermes speratus”
  Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 68: 596-601 (2018)
  
• 2.Noda, S., Shimizu, D., Yuki, M., Kitade, O., and Ohkuma, M.:
  ”Host-symbiont cospeciation of termite-gut cellulolytic protists of the genera Teranympha and Eucomonympha and their Treponema endosymbionts”
  Microbes Environ. 33: 26-33 (2018)
  
• 3.Suzuki, S., Endoh, R., Manabe, R., Ohkuma, M., and Hirakawa, Y.:
  ”Multiple losses of photosynthesis and convergent reductive genome evolution in the colourless green algae Prototheca”
  Sci. Rep. 8: 940 (2018)
• 4.Sakamoto, M., Iino, T., and Ohkuma, M.:
  ”Faecalimonas umbilicata gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from human faeces, and reclassification of Eubacterium contortum, Eubacterium fissicatena and Clostridium oroticum as Faecalicatena contorta gen. nov., comb. nov., Faecalicatena fissicatena comb. nov. and Faecalicatena orotica comb. nov.”
  Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 67: 1219-1227 (2017)
• 5.Kuwahara, H., Yuki, M., Izawa, K., Ohkuma, M., and Hongoh, Y.:
  “Genome of ‘Ca.Desulfovibrio trichonymphae’, an H2-oxidizing bacterium in a tripartite symbiotic system within a protist cell in the termite gut.”
  ISME J. 11: 766-776 (2017)
• 6.Lee, C. G., Iida, T., Uwagaki, Y., Otani, Y., Nakaho, K., and Ohkuma, M.:
  ”Comparison of prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities in soil samples with and without tomato bacterial wilt collected from different fields”
  Microbes Environ. 32: 376–385 (2017)
• 7.Nakazawa, S., Haramiishi, A., Fukuda, K., Kanayama, Y., Watanabe, T., Yuki, M., Ohkuma, M., Takeda, K., Kimbara, K., and Shintani, M.:
  ”Different transferability of incompatibility (Inc) P-7 plasmid pCAR1 and IncP-1 plasmid pBP136 in stirring liquid conditions”
  PLoS ONE 12: e0186248 (2017)
• 8.Itoh, T., Onishi, M., Kato, S., Iino, T., Sakamoto, M., Kudo, T., Takashina, T., and Ohkuma, M.:
  ”Athalassotoga saccharophila gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from an acidic terrestrial hot spring, and proposal of Mesoaciditogales ord. nov. and Mesoaciditogaceae fam. nov. in the phylum Thermotogae”
  Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 66: 1045-1051 (2016)
• 9.Sriswasdi, S., Takashima, M., Manabe, R., Ohkuma, M., Sugita, T., and Iwasaki, W.:
  “Global deceleration of gene evolution following recent genome hybridizations in fungi”
  Genome Res. 26: 1081-1090 (2016)
• 10.Ohkuma, M., Noda, S., Hattori, S., Iida, T., Yuki, M., Starns, D., Inoue, J., Darby, A.C., and Hongoh, Y.:
  “Acetogenesis from H2 plus CO2 and nitrogen fixation by an endosymbiotic spirochete of a termite-gut cellulolytic protist”
  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 112: 10224-10230 (2015)
  

Recent Research Results

• 

  Sep. 4, 2015
  Symbiotic bacterium in termite gut pinned down

• 

  Nov. 7, 2014
  Bacteria and immune cells forge a productive partnership

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