The emergence of connectin, also called titin, a muscular spring and the largest protein in living organisms, is critical in metazoan evolution as it enables striated muscle-based locomotion. However, its evolutionary history remains unclear. Here, we investigated the evolutionary process using genomic analysis and deduced the ancestor of connectin. The region between the HOX and WNT clusters in the human genome, where the con...

We previously reported autophagy-mediated degradation of nuclei, nucleophagy, in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus oryzae . In this study, we examined whether nuclei are degraded as a whole. We generated A. oryzae mutants deleted for orthologs of Saccharomyces cerevisiae YPT7 and ATG15 which are required, respectively, for autophagosome-vacuole fusion and vacuolar degradation of autophagic bodies. Degradation of histone H2B-E...

The tendency to avoid punishment, called behavioral inhibition system, is an essential aspect of motivational behavior. Behavioral inhibition system is related to negative affect, such as anxiety, depression and pain, but its neural basis has not yet been clarified. To clarify the association between individual variations in behavioral inhibition system and brain 5-HT 2A receptor availability and specify which brain networks w...

The fishing grounds of the Pacific saury began shifting eastward after 2013 and deviated further east in 2019 and 2020. Consequently, the migration pattern from the pre‐fishing distribution to fishing grounds may be changing. This study investigated inter‐annual variations in westward spawning migration parameters using a migration model. Case studies were conducted to estimate optimal values for the initiation date of spawnin...

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-021-01506-9

Fishery-independent surveys using sea surface trawl nets for Pacific saury Cololabis saira in the western North Pacific since 2003 have enabled the investigation of their annual distribution patterns and total biomass during June and July, prior to the main fishing season in Japan. We compared biomass estimates and their associated variances derived based on five different post-stratification approaches in a swept area method,...