Takao Kasuga

Work Address: Research Molecular Geneticist USDA-ARS Department of Plant Pathology Hutchison Hall University of California Davis California 95616 (530) 752-4721 email: tkasuga@ucdavis.edu

Takao started drifting westwards in 1991 after receiving his MSc in Catalytic Chemistry from Waseda University in Japan. He stayed in Aberdeen, Scotland where he studied for his PhD in Molecular Biology. From 1995 to 1997, he found himself working for the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where he studied disease resistance genes in plants. In 1997, he reached California and has been working at Roche Molecular Systems and at the University of California in Berkeley ever since. Takao's main interests are the evolution of fungal pathogens and host pathogen interactions, as well as coevolution of languages and human cultures.

Takao left UC Berkeley in April 2008 for UC Davis and the USDA ARS where he's working as a Research Molecular Geneticist.

Journal Publications

• H. Johannesson, T. Kasuga, R.A. Schaller, B. Good, M.J. Gardner, J.P. Townsend, G.T. Cole and J.W. Taylor. 2006. Phase-specific gene expression underlying morphological adaptations of the dimorphic human pathogenic fungus, Coccidioides posadasii. Fungal Genetics and Biology 43(8): 545-559.
  
  
• Takao Kasuga, Jeffrey P. Townsend, Chaoguang Tian, Luz B. Gilbert, Gertrud Mannhaupt, John W. Taylor and N. Louise Glass. 2005. Long-oligomer microarray profiling in Neurospora crassa reveals the transcriptional program underlying biochemical and physiological events of conidial germination. Nucleic Acids Research 33(20): 6469–6485.
  
  
• Takao Kasuga, Thomas J. White, Gina Koenig, Juan McEwen, Angela Restrepo, Elizabetha Castañeda, Carlos da Silva Lacaz, Elisabeth M. Heins-Vaccari, Roseli S. de Freitas, Rosely M. Zancopé-Oliveira, Zhenyu Qin, Ricardo Negroni, Deidre A. Carter, Yuzuru Mikami, Miki Tamura, María Lucía Taylor, Georgina F. Miller, Natteewan Poonwan and John W Taylor. 2003. Phylogeography of the fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum. Molecular Ecology 12: 3383-3401.
  
  
• T. Kasuga, T. J. White and J. W. Taylor. 2002. Estimation of nucleotide substitution rates in eurotiomycete fungi. Molecular Biology and Evolution 19(12): 2318-24.
  
  
• M. Tamura, T. Kasuga, K. Watanabe, M. Katsu, Y. Mikami and K. Nishimura. 2002. Phylogenetic characterization of Histoplasma capsulatum strains based on ITS region sequences including two new strains from Thai and Chinese patients in Japan. Japan Journal of Medical Mycology 43: 11.
  
  
• T. Kasuga and K. R. Mitchelson. 2000. Intersterility group differentiation in Heterobasidion annosum using ribosomal IGS1 region polymorphism. Forest Pathology 30:329-344.
  
  
• J. G. McEwen, J. W. Taylor, D. Carter, J. Xu, M. S. Felipe, R. Vilgalys, T. G. Mitchell, T. Kasuga, T. White, T. Bui & C. M. Soares. 2000. Molecular typing of pathogenic fungi. Medical Mycology 38:189-197.
  
  
• J. W. Taylor, D. J. Jacobson, S. Kroken, T. Kasuga, D. M. Geiser, D. S. Hibbett and M. C. Fisher. 2000. Phylogenetic species recognition and species concepts in fungi. Fungal Genetics and Biology, 31: 21-32.
  
  
• T. Kasuga, J. W. Taylor and T. J. White. 1999. Phylogenetic relationships of varieties and geographical groups of the human pathogenic fungus, Histoplasma capsulatum Darling. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 37.
  
  
• S. Moricca, A. Ragazzi, T. Kasuga and K. Mitchelson. 1998. Detection of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum in cotton tissue by the polymerase chain reaction. Plant Pathology 47:486-496.
  
  
• T. Kasuga, S. Salimath, J. Shi, M. Gijzen, R. Buzzell and M. Bhattacharyya. 1997. High resolution genetic and physical mapping of molecular markers linked to the Phytophthora resistance gene Rps1-k in soybean. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 10:1035-1044.
  
  
• S. Moricca, T. Kasuga, K. Mitchelson, A. Ragazzi and S. Diamandis. 1996. Heterogeneity in intergenic regions of the ribosomal repeat of the pine-blister rust Cronartium flaccidum and Peridermium pini. Current Genetics 29:388-394.
  
  
• T. Kasuga, J. Cheng and K. Mitchelson. 1995. Metastable single-strand DNA conformational polymorphism analysis results in enhanced polymorphism detection. PCR Methods and Applications 4:227-233.
  
  
• J. Cheng, T. Kasuga, N. Watson and K. Mitchelson. 1995. Enhanced single-stranded DNA conformation polymorphism analysis by entangled solution capillary electrophoresis. Journal of Capillary Electrophoresis 2:24-29.
  
  
• J. Cheng, T. Kasuga, K. Mitchelson, E. Lightly, N. Watson, W. Martin and D. Atkinson. 1994. PCR heteroduplex polymorphism analysis by entangled solution capillary electrophoresis (ESCE). Journal of Chromatography A 677:169-177.
  
  
• T. Kasuga, C. Woods, S. Woodward and K. Mitchelson. 1993. Heterobasidion annosum 5.8S ribosomal DNA and internal transcribed spacer sequence: rapid identification of European intersterility groups by ribosomal DNA restriction polymorphisms. Current Genetics 24:433-436
  
  
• T. Kasuga and K. Mitchelson. 1993. Determination of the DNA sequence of the 5.8S ribosomal gene of Heterobasidion annosum and Heterobasidion araucariae. Nucleic Acids Research 21:1320.

Book Chapters and Conference Papers

• T. Kasuga, J. Cheng and K. R. Mitchelson (2001). Magnetic bead-isolated single-strand DNA for SSCP analysis. IN: K. R. Mitchelson and J. Cheng (eds) Capillary Electrophoresis of Nucleic Acids Volume II. Methods in Molecular Biology Volume 163. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey, USA. pp. 135-147.
  
  
• T. Kasuga and K. Mitchelson (1994). The development of rapid identification of Heterobasidion annosum intersterility groups by ribosomal RNA gene polymorphisms and by minisatellite allele polymorphism. IN: A. Schots, F. M. Dewey and R. Oliver (eds) Modern Assays for Plant Pathogenic Fungi: Identification, Detection and Quantification. CAB INTERNATIONAL Oxford. UK, pp. 117-126.
  
  
• T. Kasuga and K. Mitchelson (1994). Molecular probes for identification of intersterility group of Heterobasidion annosum. IN: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Root and Butt Rots Wik, Sweden and Haikko, Finland, pp. 283-291.
  
  
• M. Anderson, T. Kasuga and K. Mitchelson (1994). A partial physical karyotype of Heterobasidion annosum. IN: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Root and Butt Rots Wik, Sweden and Haikko, Finland, pp. 303-313.
  
  
• T. Kasuga, S. Moricca, K. Mitchelson, A. Ragazzi (1995). Differentiation of specialized forms of Fusarium oxysporum by ribosomal RNA gene polymorphism and SSCP analysis. IN: International Seminar on Fusarium Mycotoxins Taxonomy and Pathogenicity, Martina Franca, Italy.

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