Masaru Kawato

TL;DR: The complete genome sequence of the symbiont of Calyptogena okutanii is presented, which is the smallest reported genome in autotrophic bacteria and encodes 939 protein-coding genes, including those for thioautotrophy and for the syntheses of almost all amino acids and various cofactors.

TL;DR: A new whale-bone-eating polychaete species of the genus Osedax was found on sperm whale carcasses submerged off Cape Nomamisaki, Kyushu, Japan, at a depth of approximately 200 m and is the first species from the western Pacific.

TL;DR: Benthic communities were similar across all the carcasses studied, although the body sizes of the whales were very different, and the succession of epifaunal communities was relatively rapid and the sulphophilic stage was considerably shorter than that of other known whale falls.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe an unusual example of an adaptive radiation: symbiotic mussels that colonized island-like chemosynthetic environments such as hydrothermal vents, cold seeps and sunken organic substrates on the vast deep-sea floor.

TL;DR: It was shown that most sequences have affiliations with known major lineages of eukaryotes (Cercozoa, Alveolata, stramenopiles and Opisthokonta) and other sequences did not seem to be related to any described eUKaryotic lineages suggesting the existence of novel eukARYotes at a high-taxonomic level in the sediment.