Plant evolution and  diversity science based on biogeography

Iwasaki Lab is trying to reveal what historical and evolutionary processes have shaped the diversity of wild plants in the Japanese archipelago and East Asia, and what ecological mechanisms have maintained the diversity. In this challenge, we actively use geographic information (e.g., distribution of organisms and environmental data).

We are particularly interested in the diversity of “species” in a broad sense. There is a saying that “there are as many ways to be a species as there are species,” and the ways of being a “species” are full of diversity, including geographic isolation, adaptive evolution, gene flow, hybridization, speciation, and so on. We approach this diversity using a wide range of research methods, including field surveys, genetic analysis, and computer simulations.