astronomy

Takao Kondo

Takao Kondo is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Takao Kondo rather than just read about it. In short: Takao Kondo (近藤孝男, Kondō Takao; 1948 – 16 November 2023) was a Japanese biologist and professor of biological science at Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan. He is best known for reconstituting the circadian clock in vitro.

Key takeaways

Takao Kondo belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Takao Kondo to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Takao Kondo from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Takao Kondo (近藤孝男, Kondō Takao; 1948 – 16 November 2023) was a Japanese biologist and professor of biological science at Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan. He is best known for reconstituting the circadian clock in vitro.

Biography Kondo was born in 1948 in Kariya, Aichi, Japan, and received his B.S. in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Biology in 1977 from Nagoya University. He was appointed an assistant professor at the National Institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki, Aichi, Japan in 1978. Kondo began work as a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 1985, then continued his work abroad at Vanderbilt University between 1990 and 1991. It was at Vanderbilt University that Kondo began his research on the circadian clock of cyanobacteria. Kondo returned to Nagoya University as a professor at the Graduate School of Science in 1995. Kondo served as Dean of the School of Science from 2006 to 2009 and President of the Institute for Advanced Research of Nagoya University from 2007 to 2013. Kondo held the title of Designated Professor and Professor Emeritus of Nagoya University. Kondo died from pneumonia on 16 November 2023, at the age of 75.

Research Kondo was best known for his discoveries surrounding the molecular basis of the cyanobacteria circadian clock. Prior to Kondo's work in the late 1980s, controversy surrounding the existence of a biological clock in bacteria. Since bacteria divide rapidly and several times per day, it was thought that there was no necessity to evolve a biological clock in bacteria. Promoter-trap and microarray analysis performed by Kondo in the cyanobacteria Synechococcus revealed that many, if not all, genes displayed a rhythmic, circadian component to their expression. Kondo next employed a forward genetics approach and developed a luciferase reporter system to identify clock mutants in Synechococcus. Mutations that altered circadian behavior were grouped in a single region of the Synechococcus genome. From this observation, Kondo discovered the gene cluster kaiABC as a circadian feedback process in cyanobacteria in 1998. In 2002, Kondo demonstrated that kaiA-stimulated kaiC phosphorylation is necessary for circadian timing loops in cyanobacteria. In 2005, Kondo succeeded in reconstituting the circadian oscillation of cyanobacterial kaiC phosphorylation in vitro. Kondo's seminal 2005 discovery was the first example of a recapitulated biological rhythm in a test tube, mimicked rhythms observed in eukaryotic cells, and disproved the universal necessity of the transcription-translation autoregulatory feedback loop. Kondo's characterization of kaiABC behavior provided a molecular mechanism by which proteins respond to changes in time and enabled the fields of bacterial genetics and quantitative biochemistry to aid investigation of the biological clock.

Honors 1980: American Society for Plant Physiologist 1990–20??: Society of Research on Biological Rhythms 1995: Aschoff-Homna Prize 1999: Kihara Memorial Foundation Academic Award 1999-2005: Secretary-general, Japanese Society for Chronobiology 2005: Chunichi Prize 2006: Japanese Society of Botany Prize 2007: Asahi Prize 2007: Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Prize 2011: Kihara Prize 2011: Medal with Purple Ribbon 2011–20??: President, Japanese Society for Chronobiology 2014: Japan Academy Prize 2015: Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal 2019: Person of Cultural Merit

References

External links Kondo Lab, Nagoya University Japanese Society for Chronobiology

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Takao Kondo

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Takao Kondo claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Takao Kondo before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Takao Kondo ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Takao Kondo

In research: Takao Kondo appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Takao Kondo in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Takao Kondo is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, 2023 deaths, Academic staff of Nagoya University, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Takao Kondo outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Takao Kondo in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Takao Kondo means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Takao Kondo out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Takao Kondo in simple terms?

Why does Takao Kondo matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Takao Kondo?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Takao Kondo.