2016 Awards in the Journal of Plant Research.

Abstract

is also important for proper positioning of NACK1 in the developing cell plates, demonstrating its excellence by providing a new insight into the molecular mechanism of cell plate formation. Akitaka Tono and Noriaki Murakami in the Makino Herbarium at Tokyo Metropolitan University, Takaya Iwasaki in the Center for Ecological Research at Kyoto University, and Akihiro Seo in the Department of Botany in the Graduate School of Science at Kyoto University have found that the formation of contact zones for some deciduous species in the Kinki-Chugoku region was established by “habitat suitability” of the species. A few deciduous species survived after the last glacial age and developed in the Kinki-Chugoku region by forming a contact zone in Hyogo Prefecture. It is generally accepted that contact zones could be formed due to geographical factors such as the Alps and Pyrenees Mountains, but no such geographical factors have been recognized in the contact zone of Hyogo Prefecture. Tono et al. (2015) theoretically address the question about the formation of contact zones in Hyogo Prefecture, using generalized additive models considering various environmental factors including climate and topography. The results indicate that “the pattern of low habitat suitability estimated by ecological niche modeling was the most appropriate for determining the location of the common contact zone”, demonstrating its excellence by proposing a new global concept in the field of botanical geography.