Kentaro Shimizu
Table of contents
Research interests
Molecular basis of biodiversity, speciation by genome duplication (polyploidy), language evolution, evolution of mating systems and self-incompatibility, evolutionary and ecological genomics for predicting evolutionary and plastic responses in changing environments. The study species include Arabidopsis relatives as model species, wheat as a crop species, tropical trees as environmentally relevant species, and human beings. To study them, new bioinformatic tools (e.g. HomeoRoq for polyploid RNA-seq), machine learning tools (e.g. PlantServation for field plant images) and database (e.g., GeLaTo, GEnes and LAnguages TOgether) are developed.
CV
Education and professional positions
| 2021 - present | Co-director of the University Research Priority Program of Evolution in Action, link |
| 2019 - present | Full Professor, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Switzerland |
| 2016 - present | Director of PhD Program in Evolutionary Biology |
| 2015 | NISTEP Award (Award for nice step researchers) from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan |
| 2015 - present | Guest Professor at the Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University, Japan |
| 2015 | Visiting Professor at the Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Japan |
| 2015 - present | Swiss representative of the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee |
| 2011 - 2018 | Associate Professor, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Switzerland |
| 2006 - 2011 | Assistant Professor, Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zurich, Switzerland |
| 2003 - 2006 | Research Scholar, Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University, USA |
| 2002 - 2003 | Postdoctoral fellow, Kyoto University, Japan |
| 1997 - 2002 | Graduate studies (Ph.D.) in Biology, Kyoto University, Japan |
| 1993 - 1997 | Undergraduate studies (B.S.) in Biology, Kyoto University, Japan |
Selected publications
See complete publication list on Google Scholar.
- Barbieri C., Blasi DE., Arango-Isaza E., Sotiropoulos AG., Hammarström H., Wichmann S., Greenhill SJ., Gray RD., Forkel R., Bickel B., Shimizu KK. (2022). A global analysis of matches and mismatches between human genetic and linguistic histories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119:47. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2122084119
UZH News English German - Tsuchimatsu T., Kakui H., Yamazaki M., Marona C., Tsutsui H., Hedhly A., Meng D., Sato Y., Städler T., Grossniklaus U., Kanaoka MM., Lenhard M., Nordborg M., Shimizu KK. (2020). Adaptive reduction of male gamete number in the selfing plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature Communications 11: 2885. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16679-7
UZH News English German - Walkowiak S., et al. (2020). Spotlight on global wheat genome variation and impact for modern breeding. Nature 588; 277-283. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2961-x
UZH News English, German - Paape T., Briskine RV., Lischer HEL., Halstead-Nussloch G., Shimizu-Inatsugi R., Hatakeyama M., Tanaka K., Nishiyama T., Sabirov R., Sese J., Shimizu KK. (2018). Patterns of polymorphism and selection in the subgenomes of the allopolyploid Arabidopsis kamchatica. Nature Communications 9: 3909. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06108-1
Nature Link - Tsuchimatsu T., Suwabe K., Shimizu-Inatsugi R., Isokawa S., Pavilidis P., Städler T., Suzuki G., Takayama S., Watanabe M., Shimizu KK. (2010). Evolution of self-compatibility in Arabidopsis by a mutation in the male specificity gene. Nature, 464, 1342-1346. DOI: 10.1038/nature08927
