Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology University, Japan
PhD, Tokyo University in 1974. Prof. Emeritus of Kyoto University in 2009, Prof. of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate School since 2019. Started coral genome scientific research around 2010.
Okinawa islands, south-western part of Japan, are surrounded by beautiful coral reefs. The coral reefs were severely damaged in 1998 but gradually being recovered. The Okinawa Prefecture has promoted the coral reef preservation project for nearly ten years, by successful plantation of approximately 150,000 coral seeds to cover 3 hectares of seashore. My research group decoded the genome of Acropora digitiferain 2011 (Nature 476: 320) and recently, in collaboration with Univ. Tokyo, has decoded genomes of 15 Acropora and 3 other coral species. The genomic informationhas been used as methodsfor better toolsof coral reef preservation. I wish to discuss here how the genomic information contributes to the present and future coral reef preservation in Okinawa, Japan.
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