Takahiro Sato

Affiliation: Graduate School of Medical Sciences (ad. Institute for the Study of Ancient Civilizations and Cultural Resources)
Job Class: Assistant Professor
Specialty: Molecular Anthropology
*Kanazawa University

Research Topic

I am working on clarifying human population history in Northeast Asia and surrounding regions using genomic data. Especially, I consider that paleogenomics, which enable us to directly obtain genomic information of ancient people, is a powerful technique for understanding past demographic events. Recently, I am conducting genome analysis of ancient human bones excavated from the stratum of the prehistoric Okhotsk cultural period in Rebun Island which is located in northern Hokkaido, and the strata of Neolithic period to late Medieval around Lake Baikal.

I am also engaged in searching for genetic polymorphisms associated with morphological traits of human by genome-wide association study (GWAS). Genotype information of polymorphisms associated with soft tissue phenotypes such as eyelid morphology, hairiness, or skin color, would enable us to infer such features of ancient individuals, which cannot be restored from bone morphology. In addition, it is possible to verify whether a phenotype of interest had undergone natural selection in the past or not, by evaluating the diversity of genomic regions around polymorphisms associated with the phenotype.

By utilizing the methods described above, I would like to clarify past migration and admixture events in Northeast Asia and evolutionary process of the acquisition of phenotypes frequently observed in Northeast Asian populations.

Selected Publications

• Sato, Takehiro, Noboru Adachi, Ryosuke Kimura, Kazuyoshi Hosomichi, Minoru Yoneda, Hiroki Oota, Atsushi Tajima, Atsushi Toyoda, Hideaki Kanzawa-Kiriyama, Hiromi Matsumae, Kae Koganebuchi, Kentaro K Shimizu, Ken-ichi Shinoda, Tsunehiko Hanihara, Andrzej Weber, Hirofumi Kato, Hajime Ishida (2021), “Whole-genome sequencing of a 900-year-old human skeleton supports two past migration events from the Russian Far East to northern Japan”. Genome Biology and Evolution. DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab192
• Nomura, Akihiro, Takehiro Sato, Hayato Tada, Takayuki Kannon, Kazuyoshi Hosomichi, Hiromasa Tsujiguchi, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Masayuki Takamura, Astushi Tajima, Masa-aki Kawashiri (2021), “Polygenic risk score for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and familial hypercholesterolemia”. Journal of Human Genetics. DOI: 10.1038/s10038-021-00929-7
• Sato, Takehiro, Shigeki Nakagome, Chiaki Watanabe, Kyoko Yamaguchi, Akira Kawaguchi, Kae Koganebuchi, Kuniaki Haneji, Tetsutaro Yamaguchi, Tsunehiko Hanihara, Ken Yamamoto, Hajime Ishida, Shuhei Mano, Ryosuke Kimura, Hiroki Oota (2014), “Genome-Wide SNP Analysis Reveals Population Structure and Demographic History of the Ryukyu Islanders in the Southern Part of the Japanese Archipelago”. Molecular Biology and Evolution 31: 2929–2940. DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msu230
• Sato, Takehiro, Razhev Dmitry, Tetsuya Amano, Ryuichi Masuda (2011), “ Genetic features of ancient West Siberian people of the Middle Ages, revealed by mitochondrial DNA haplogroup analysis”. Journal of Human Genetics 56: 602-608. DOI: 10.1038/jhg.2011.68