(Last update: April 2025)
(Last update: April 2025)
Hi there! I am Xin, a postdoc working at RIKEN, Yokohama.
My endless curiosity about biology drives me to approach research on biological phenomenon, while I find observing the world and human behavior interesting at the beginning.
How organisms interact with each other and how these interactions shape the evolutionary traits always fascinate me.
I see breakthroughs in basic science as a kind of documentary. We’re not trying to reinvent biological evolution; instead, we’re leveraging every tool at our disposal to uncover the intricacies of life's processes, ultimately expanding human knowledge and advancing beneficial societal development.
My expertise spans various fields, through fieldwork, precise dissection techniques, Electron Microscopy, molecular bench work, and computational analysis, and experience through trainings:
Plant Development Biology (RIKEN) & Insect-plant interactions (Janelia Research Campus, HHMI) (my fav aphid gall research!)
Animal behavior, theoretical ecology (Hokkaido University)
Symbiosis, Bioinformatics, Genomics (National Institute for Basic Biology) (mainly C++, but happy to learn any new languages!)
基礎科学特別研究員
理化学研究所 環境資源科学研究センター
アブラムシ、虫こぶ、性比理論の研究に取り組んでいます:D
AB型みずがめ座/Love Hokkaido!🐿️ 🌊 🍙 🍉 🐟 🍣 ♨️ 🐄 ~
Ph.D. (Hokkaido University/北海道大学農学院 昆虫体系学研究室)
Links: researchmap; google scholar;
Twitter: @Somanygalls
Contact: xin.tong[@]riken.jp / tetraneurasorini[@]gmail.com
Update
>The proposal for Collaboration Seed Fund with Dr. Tom Hitchcock was accepted!
>Yeah🎉~ Xin won the Presentation Awards for Young Scientists and for Women Scientists at XXVII International Congress of Entomology (ICE2024Kyoto)! It won't happen without your kind support🥰😍 Thank you very much!!
>🌷Xin happily joined the Summer Conference on Plant-microbe interactions by The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) in Norwich, UK! Trust me, TSL is a great science hub and with wonderful humanity too! Summer in Norwich is sooo comfy!
>Xin will present ''Aphid-Induced Gall Formation on Elm Trees: Development and Species-Specific Organization'' at the IPMB 2024 Congress, being held in Cairns from 24-28 June.
>Xin will join Mechanisms of Inter-Organismal Extended Phenotypes at Janelia to learn more about the interactions between organisms!
>Xin will present her work on aphid galls in the 8th International Plant Gall Symposium 2023, Chico, CA on July 10~15th, 2023!
>recently studying aphid galls in Stern Lab in Janelia Research Campus of HHMI in Virginia :D (2023~)
//Publications *corresponding
6. Xin Tong*, Shin-ichi Akimoto, Tomonari Nozaki, Masanori Arita, Shuji Shigenobu, How The Transition of Aphid Life Cycles Affect Endosymbiotic Bacteria, (submitted), bioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.02.646943v1 (2025)
5. Xin Tong*, Yuuki Kobayashi, Mika Ikeda, Hsin-i Wen, Shin-ichi Akimoto, Shuji Shigenobu*, Draft Genome Sequences of Buchnera aphidicola from Three Aphid Species (Hemiptera: Aphididae: Eriosomatinae) Associated with Gall Formation on Elm Trees, https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mra.00336-25 (2025), Microbiology Resource Announcements
4. Xin Tong*, Natsumi Kanzaki, Shin-ichi Akimoto, First record of a mermithid nematode (Nematoda: Mermithidae) parasitizing winged females of gall-forming aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae: Eriosomatinae) (2021), Entomological Science
3. Xin Tong, Yusuke Takata, Shin-ichi Akimoto*, Seasonal changes in cuticular hydrocarbons in response to polyphenism in the host-alternating aphid Prociphilus oriens, (2021), Entomological Science
2. Xin Tong & Shin-ichi Akimoto*, Female-female competition leads to female-biased sex allocation and dimorphism in brood sex composition in a gall-forming aphid, (2019), Functional Ecology
(Publication as undergraduate student)
1. Li Ran, Han Lan-lan, Ye Le-fu, Sun Wen-peng, Xin Tong, and Zhao Kui-jun*, Genetic differentiation analyses based on mtDNA COII gene sequences among different geographic populations of Aphis glycines (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in Northeast of China, Journal of Northeast Agricultural University , 22 (3), pp. 23-31, (2015) (Journal Access)