Research Summary

Selected Publications

• 1.Sugahara, F., Pascual-Anaya, J., Oisi, Y., Kuraku, S., Aota, S., Adachi, N., Takagi, W., Hirai, T., Sato, N., Murakami, Y., and Kuratani, S.:
  “Evidence from cyclostomes for complex regionalization of the ancestral vertebrate brain.”
  Nature (2016, in press).
• 2.Kitazawa, T., Takechi, M., Hirasawa, T., Hirai, T., Narboux-Nême, N., Kume, H., Oikawa, S., Maeda, K., Miyagawa-Tomita, S., Kurihara, Y., Hitomi, J., Levi, G., Kuratani, S., and Hiroki Kurihara, H.:
  “Developmental genetic bases behind the independent origin of the tympanic membrane in mammals and diapsids.”
  Nat. Commun. 6, 6853 (2015).
• 3.Wang, Z.^*, Pascual-Anaya, J.^*, Zadissa, A., Li, W., Niimura, Y., Huang, Z., Li, C., White, S., Xiong, Z., Fang, D., Wang, B., Ming, Y., Chen, Y., Zheng, Y., Kuraku, S., Pignatelli, M., Herrero, J., Nozawa, M., Juan Wang, J., Zhang, H., Yu, L., Shigenobu, S., Wang, J., Liu, J., Flicek, P., Searle, S., Wang, J., Kuratani, S., Yin, Y., Aken, B., Zhang, G., Irie, N.:
  “Development and evolution of turtle-specific body plan assessed by genome-wide analyses.”
  Nat. Genet. 45, 701-706 (2013).
• 4.Hirasawa, T., Nagashima, H., and Kuratani, S.:
  “The endoskeletal origin of the turtle carapace.”
  Nat. Commun. 4, 2107 (2013).
• 5.Oisi, Y., Ota, K. G., Kuraku, S., Fujimoto, S. and Kuratani, S.:
  “Craniofacial development of hagfishes and the evolution of vertebrates.”
  Nature 493, 175-180 (2013).
• 6.Ota, K. G., Fujimoto, S., Oisi, Y., and Kuratani, S.:
  “Identification of vertebra-like elements and their possible differentiation from sclerotomes in the hagfish.”
  Nat. Commun. 2, 373 (2011).
• 7.Irie, N., and Kuratani, S.:
  “Comparative transcriptome analysis detects vertebrate phylotypic stage during organogenesis.”
  Nat. Commun. 2, 248 (2011).
• 8.Nagashima, H., Sugahara, F., Takechi, M., Ericsson, R., Kawashima-Ohya, Y., Narita, Y., and Kuratani, S.:
  “Evolution of the turtle body plan by the folding and creation of new muscle connections.”
  Science 325, 193-196 (2009).
• 9.Ota, K. G., Kuraku, S., and Kuratani, S.:
  “Hagfish embryology with reference to the evolution of the neural crest.”
  Nature 446, 672-675 (2007).
• 10.Shigetani, Y., Sugahara, F., Kawakami, Y., Murakami, Y., Hirano, S., and Kuratani, S.:
  “Heterotopic shift of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions for vertebrate jaw evolution.”
  Science 296, 1316-1319 (2002).

Recent Research Results

• 

  Feb. 19, 2016
  Jawless fish brains more similar to ours than previously thought

• 

  Apr. 22, 2015
  Look mom, no eardrums!

• 

  Aug. 9, 2013
  Unraveling the secrets of the turtle shell

• Jun. 28, 2013
  Genomic analysis solves the turtle mystery

Publications

Annual research report

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