Evolutionary cell and developmental biology: Laboratory

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	Evolutionary cell and developmental biology

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a fly and a spider in amber

Flies and spiders are creatures disliked in general. Nevertheless, they are existing very closely to us. These creatures have a history. As you begin to examine their past, you will start to realize that somewhere, there was once a common ancestor of flies and spiders. If you trace their existence futher into the past, you will come to the understanding that there must have been a common ancestor of these creatures and humans. Can you imagine what kind of creature’s world existed on the earth during that period? That was 500 to 600 million years ago. An unimaginable length has passed since then.
The present flies, spiders, and humans have their own ways of life and shapes of body, which were acquired during their experienced long time. It is very hard for us to know when and how these insects and spiders originated because the ‘memories’ of the past events have been diluted with time. We believe, nevertheless, that some clues that allow us to speculate about the histories of the animals can be obtained by means of genetic and molecular biology. The genomes and the develapmental mechanisms of the animals include ancient ‘messages’ immune from relatively short-term evolutionary diversification.
Our research focuses on the evolution of intercellular junctions and developmental mechanisms in bilaterian metazoans. We are dealing with a wide range of animals including fly (Drosophila melanogaster), cricket, shrimp, spider (Achaearanea tepidariorum), sea star, oyster, acorn worm, and amphioxus. We are examining similar and dissimilar aspects of intercellular junctions and developmental mechanisms among the animals, allowing us to discuss their evolutionary histories.