KONO Lab
Bioinformatics, Systems biology, Synthetic biology
Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University
Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University
Design Biology
Bioinformatics
Systems biology
Synthetic biology
Molecular biology
Microbiology
Genomics
Molecular ecology
Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University
403-1, Daihouji, Tsuruoka, Yamagata, 997-0017, Japan
Phone: +81-235-29-0526
Email: ciconia [at] sfc.keio.ac.jp
Latest Publication
Masui, Yamamoto, Kono, 2024
Myxomycetes have an allorecognition system that can only discriminate between intraspecies
bioRxiv, 10.1101/2024.02.15.580440
Myxomycetes are multinucleate unicellular organisms. They form a plasmodium that moves by protoplasmic flow and prey on microorganisms. When encountering intraspecifics, the plasmodium has the capacity for ‘fusion’, actively approaching and fusing its cells, or ‘avoidance’, altering its direction to avoid the other individual. This is an allorecognition ability. However, it remains unclear whether the range of allorecognition extends to other species, and its ecological significance is also obscure. Here, we conduct a quantitative evaluation of contact responses from closely related species of plasmodium to clarify the recognition range of the allorecognition system in Myxomycetes. Behavioral assays demonstrate that the allorecognition system recognizes individuals within the same species while failing to recognize those of different species. The allorecognition is an extremely narrow and inward-focused mechanism, arguing for a highly specialized system of self-other recognition.