Masaki Shimamura

Sperm dispersal of a liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha.

@ligimets Field guides amazon.co.jp/s?k=%E3%82%B3%…

@ligimets jstage.jst.go.jp/article/hattor…

Zoospore release in a brown algae, Undaria pinnatifida

My class "seaweed observation" in Miyajima Botanical garden, Hiroshima.

Developing sporophytes of Funaria hygrometrica.

Moss pillars in antarctic lake. Photo by Dr. Satoshi Imura and his team.

science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… Some mosses, in association with algae and bacteria, form tower-like structures more than 80 cm high, underwater Antarctic lakes. I always thought it looked very similar to Devonian giant organism #Protataxites. But, I must change my mind.

Research achievements in the lab next door (Yuki Hirakawa Lab in Hiroshima Univ). I helped with the microscopic observations of Marchantia polymorpha. I was very surprised to see the "gemiferous" mutant, whose surface was completely covered with gemmae.

Allen (1925) suggested that the gene that determines whether tetrads remain united or separate is located on the "female chromosome" and is maternally inherited. As far as I observed, in all Japanese plants, the spore tetrads are dispersed as a unit.

Sphaerocarpos donnellii is famous as the first plant species in which sex chromosomes were discovered. This species is originally distributed in a narrow range in southeastern North America, but naturalized in Japan.

I identified the species as Sphaerocarpos donnellii because each spore has a tee-peg-like structure on the center of the distal surface of each spore. Spores of S. texanus and S. michelii should not have such structure.

@jpaulmoorephoto Collect four cray balls inside and smelt them to produce one brick.

@jpaulmoorephoto The round shape and green color are soothing to the mind.

Our laboratory exhibited a moss ball making class at the University Festival.

I was promoted from associate professor to professor. Photo is a present I received from my students. T-shirt with the faces of past professors of our Laboratory printed on it.