Eriko Sasaki

As we have individuality, such as hair colors, body shapes, and sensitivity to diseases, there are many differences across individuals within a species. Such inherited differences are genetically and environmentally controlled, and they have become fundamental sources of evolution. However, functional connections from genetic variation to phenotypic variation largely remain unclear. What are the missing links? We are trying to answer this question by using genomics, quantitative genetics, and molecular biology approaches. Our main scientific goal is to understand how genetic and environmental factors are shaping various morphological and physiological differences at the levels from cell to ecology, and how natural selection is working on the variations.

Projects

The genetic basis of life-history traits in Arabidopsis

As some plants flower in spring, and others flower in fall, plants have their own seasonal life cycles from germination to flowering and fruiting in order to live in various climates and environments. Such adaptive traits (aka life-history traits) are tightly coordinated with seasonal cues, including day length, precipitation, and winter low temperature through interaction with genetic variation (G x E). However, the dissecting of G x E is still challenging because the genetic architecture is strongly linked to population structure; furthermore, a large number of genetic variants with a small effect size are involved in the regulation of complex traits. We have determined the genetic basis of life-history traits contributing to local adaptation in natural populations of Arabidopsis by developing quantitative genetics models.

Selected articles

Sasaki, E., Köcher, T., Filiault, D., Nordborg, M^*., Revisiting a GWAS peak in Arabidopsis thaliana reveals possible confounding by genetic heterogeneity., Heredity, 127, 245–252 (2021).

†Sasaki E., †Frommlet F., Nordborg M^*., The genetic architecture of the network underlying flowering time variation in Arabidopsis thaliana., G3-Genes Genom Genet, 8: 3059-3068 (2018)

Kerdaffrec E., Filiault DL., Korte A., Sasaki E., Nizhynska V., Seren Ü., Nordborg M^*., Multiple alleles at a single locus control seed dormancy in Swedish Arabidopsis., elife., e22502 (2016)

Sasaki E., Zhang P., Atwell S., Meng D, Nordborg M^*. "Missing" G x E Variation Controls Flowering Time in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS Genet., 11(10):e1005597 (2015)

†Goda H., †Sasaki E., Akiyama K., Maruyama-Nakashita A., Nakabayashi K., Li W., Ogawa M., Yamauchi Y., Preston J., Aoki K., Kiba T., Takatsuto S., Fujioka S., Asami T., Nakano T., Kato H., Mizuno T., Sakakibara H., Yamaguchi S., Nambara E., Kamiya Y., Takahashi H., Yokota-Hirai M., Sakurai T., Shinozaki K., Saito K., Yoshida S. and Shimada Y^*., The AtGenExpress hormone and chemical treatment dataset: experimental design, data evaluation, model data analysis and data access, Plant J. 55: 526-542 (2008)