At the 24^th Annual Meeting of the Society for Evolutionary Studies, Japan (SESJ)held from August 4 to 7, 2022, Dr. OMAE Kimiho (Project Researcher) and Mr. NISHIGUCHI Tomoya (doctoral course student) in the Department of Integrated Biosciences, the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo respectively won the awards as follows:

The List of Award Winners of the SESJ Meeting 2022

The Awarded Presentation (Dr. OMAE):

Award:
Oral Presentation Award, Best Post-Doctoral Researcher Presentation Award, the 24^th SESJ Annual Meeting at Numazu

Title:
Prediction of New Function of Genes by the "Alternative-Choice Evolution" (OMAE Kimiho, NISHIMURA Yuki, TOMINAGA Kento, and IWASAKI Wataru)

Dr. OMAE Kimiho comprehensively analyzed the "Alternative-Choice Evolution" (anticorrelated evolution) on the procaryotic genomes and clarified that such evolution:
-tends to occur between genes that have similar functions,
-tends to occur for enzymes that catalyze important metabolic reactions, and
-occurs during adaption to environment.

Furthermore, by analyzing the "Alternative-Choice Evolution" between function-known and function-unknown genes, he succeeded in predicting functions of many unknown genes without homology search .

The Awarded Presentation (Mr. NISHIGUCHI):

Award:
Outstanding Poster Award, the24^th SESJ Annual Meeting at Numazu

Title:
Are Biome Specialists Prone to Speciate? (NISHIGUCHI Tomoya, MIKAMI Tomoyuki, and IWASAKI Wataru)

Mr. NISHIGUCHI Tomoya tested the resource-use hypothesis, which predicts that biome specialists are prone to speciate, by phylogenetic comparative methods with large-scale data. The results suggested that:
-there are lineages where the resource-use hypothesis is not supported,
-specialization is the major speciation process in those lineages, and
-whether the hypothesis is supported or not depends upon the flying ability and adaptive radiation.

Comments from the Winners:

From Dr. Omae
I am honored that the outcome of the comprehensive analysis of the unique evolution, what we call the "Alternative-Choice Evolution", on the procaryotic genomes were recognized by the Society for Evolutionary Studies, Japan. Encouraged by this award, I will farther devote myself to research and submit papers to academic journals.

From Mr. Nishiguchi
It is my greatest gratitude to receive the Outstanding Poster Award at the Meeting in Numazu. I would like to thank all who supported me. I will keep on using my time to enjoy my research.

Left: Mr. NISHIGUCHI Tomoya, Center: Prof. IWASAKI Wataru, Right: Dr. OMAE Kimiho