Members
6th
● Kenji SUETSUGU Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Ecology
Research Topic: Diverse interactions of heterotrophic plants with their hosts, pollinators and seed dispersers
Short Introduction
Kenji was born in Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and grew up near Nara Park, which has a rich and unique biota. His childhood experiences stimulated his interest in biological interactions and natural history of intriguing organisms in terrestrial ecosystems. His recent research has focused on heterotrophic plants, which exploit other organisms for carbon resources, and have consequently lost their photosynthetic capacity. Although biological mutualisms are often characterized as a balanced, reciprocal arrangement for the exchange of resources between two distantly related organisms, there are numerous cheaters that have subverted this relationship by failing to reciprocate. Heterotrophic plants are an interesting example of such cheaters. Unraveling the ecological and evolutionary processes that govern the transition of autotrophic plants to heterotrophic plants will therefore provide deeper understanding of the dynamics of the mutualism-parasitism continuum.
Latest News
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Nov. 20, 2015
Kenji Suetsugu published "First record of the mycoheterotrophic orchid Gastrodia uraiensis (Orchidaceae) from Yakushima Island, Japan" in Acta Phytotaxonomica et Geobotanica.
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Jun. 9, 2015
Kenji Suetsugu published "Avian seed dispersal in a mycoheterotrophic orchid Cyrtosia septentrionalis" in Nature Plants.
