Emeritus Professor, Department of Biology
Takashi Ohyama
([email protected])
Takashi Ohyama is a molecular biologist who earned his PhD at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Nagoya University, in 1986, spent nine years at corporate research institutes, and has since conducted most of his research at Konan University (Kobe) and Waseda University (Tokyo). He has sought to establish new paradigms in basic biology by elucidating previously unknown principles underlying biological systems, and he continues to pursue his research within this framework. His early work focused on the role of DNA conformation in gene regulation. Over time, his research interests have evolved, as outlined below.
Major research themes
Self-organization/self-assembly of genetic materialsGenetic information encoded in the physical properties of DNA
Evolutional pathway of carnivorous plants
Major findings
All of the following findings are original contributions of his group
1. Under physiological magnesium concentrations, both DNA and nucleosomes can discriminate self from non-self and identical entities selectively assemble (2007, 2013). Nucleosome self-assembly occurs even within chromatin fibers and the identity of the DNA nucleotide sequence plays a decisive role in this process.2. Genetic information is also encoded in the physical properties of DNA. For example:
o Information about the positions of gene promoters and the basis of their functions reside not in the nucleotide sequence, but in the physical properties of DNA (2004, 2005).
o In yeast, the three-dimensional organization of the genome in the nucleus is governed primarily by the physical properties of DNA and nuclear size (2013).
3. Digestive enzyme genes in carnivorous plants are derived from genes originally functioning in environmental response pathways (since 2005).