{"id":62,"date":"2026-05-11T14:14:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/?page_id=62"},"modified":"2026-09-11T14:29:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T05:29:29","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-62\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-62-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-62-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell panel-grid-cell-empty\" ><\/div><div id=\"pgc-62-0-1\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell panel-grid-cell-mobile-last\" ><div id=\"panel-62-0-1-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<p>In bacteria, essential genes are typically located on the chromosome, whereas plasmids usually carry accessory genes - such as those<br \/>\nconferring antibiotic resistance - that provide advantages under specific conditions but are not indispensable for survival.<\/p>\n<p>We have been studying bacteria that defy this conventional genome organization, in which ribosomal RNA genes are located exclusively<br \/>\non small plasmids. Initially regarded as rare exceptions, these bacteria were later found, through exploration of genomic databases, to be<br \/>\nphylogenetically diverse while sharing a similar genome organization. We also discovered that this seemingly unstable genome<br \/>\norganization has been stably maintained for hundreds of millions of years.<\/p>\n<p>However, the mechanisms underlying this long-term stability, and the biological significance of this genome organization, remain largely<br \/>\nunknown. This research unit will address these fundamental questions by investigating newly uncovered exceptions and testing whether<br \/>\nthey reflect broader principles, thereby generating new insights and perspectives in microbial genomics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><div id=\"panel-62-0-1-1\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-image panel-last-child\" data-index=\"1\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-image so-widget-sow-image-default-c67d20f9f743-62\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"sow-image-container\">\n\t\t<img \n\tsrc=\"\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/research_01.webp\" width=\"800\" title=\"Research\" alt=\"\" \t\tclass=\"so-widget-image\"\/>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pgc-62-0-2\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell panel-grid-cell-empty\" ><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In bacteria, essential genes are typically located on the chromosome, whereas plasmids usually carry accessory genes &#8211; such as those conferring antibiotic resistance &#8211; that provide advantages under specific conditions but are not indispensable for survival. We have been studying bacteria that defy this conventional genome organization, in which ribosomal RNA genes are located exclusively on small plasmids. Initially regarded as rare exceptions, these bacteria were later found, through exploration of genomic databases, to be phylogenetically diverse while sharing a similar genome organization. We also discovered that this seemingly unstable genome organization has been stably maintained for hundreds of millions of years. However, the mechanisms underlying this long-term stability, and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"class_list":["post-62","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mgen.brc.riken.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}