Professor Tetsuro Nomura

■ Area and Subject Taught: Animal Breeding and Genetics
■ Research Theme(s): Applications of Population Genetics to Animal Breeding and Conservation
■ Academic Degrees: Doctor of Agriculture, Kyoto University
■ Keywords for Research Field: Animal Breeding, Population Genetics, Genetic Diversity, Biological Conservation

[Research Overview]

Our research applies population genetics theory to animal breeding and conservation. Specifically, we are carrying out research on the following two themes.
(1) Selection and mating methods for animals (especially domestic animals) What sort of individuals should be chosen as parents (selection), and what sort of matings should be performed between the selected parents, are important questions in animal breeding. We are using knowledge from genetics and statistics in our approach to these issues. We are also investigating the validity of the methods by using computer simulation.
(2) Genetic research on wild animal conservation In recent years, habitat degradation has placed many wild animal species at risk of extinction. In our research, we are applying population genetics to development of methods for maintaining and increasing populations of such animal species.

[Notable Publications and Works in the Last Three Years]

1. T.(2008) Estimation of effective number of breeders from molecular coancestry of single cohort sample. Evolutionary Applications., 1: 462-474.
2. T.(2007) Comparison of selection and mating systems for maintenance of closed poultry lines using severral breeding cages. J. Poult. Sci., 44:141-145.
3. T., Fujii T., Nomura T. and Mukai F.（2006）Evalution of genetic diversity in Japanese Brown cattle population by pedigree analysis. J. Anim Breed. Genet., 123,172-179.
4. T.（2005）Effective population size under random mating with a finite number of matings. Genetics, 171, 1441-1442.
5. T.（2005）Methods for minimizing the loss of genetic diversity in conserved populations with overlapping generations. Conserv. Genet., 6, 655-663.