In collaboration with Derek Moulton at Mathematical Institute in Oxford and Nathanael Aubert-Kato at Ochanomizu University, we demonstrated a proof-of-concept approach to a multi-scale modeling of horn shape in a mollusk species ‘Sazae’ which shows a large phenotypic plasticity in presence and absence of horns within a single species. Sazae shows an amazing phenotypic plasticity – within one species, some grow large horns but the other do not, and even during an individual life, making horns or not switches. It has been hypothesized that this is because of ocean environment, such as degree of wave. Our model combining molecular scale and mechanical, morphological scale explains different horn shape from different ecological habitats. Using machine learning technologies, we also identified parameter space that describes horn morphology. This work provide a novel approach for studies in non-model organisms, difficult to undertake functional analysis, by combining mathematical, computational and biological tools. This work is in press in PLoS Computational Biology.

How parental stress will impact on the variation in development of the next generation? ‘Bet-hedging’ hypothesis, in that between-sibling variation increases after parental exposure to environmental stress, has been widely discussed in evolutionary biology. However, contrary to the prediction of bet-hedging hypothesis, we found that variation in the maternal mRNAs decreases after maternal embryonic thermal stress in Ciona intestinalis. In a small number of mRNAs encoding signaling molecules, we found increase in maternal mRNA in the egg from stressed mothers. The results is published in BMC Ecology and Evolution 24: 21 (2024)

https://bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-024-02203-8