The 26^th Annual meeting of Japanese Society for DNA Polymorphism Research took place in Tokyo on December 1, 2017. Dr. Hiroko Nagano, Professor Emeritus (Faculty of Education) and Professor Tohru Suzuki, Course of Applied Life Science, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences of Gifu University received the Award for Excellence from the society and their collaborates.

The Award for Excellent Research goes to the best research themes recognized by the society after its rigorous reviews and examinations. The award-wining theme of the two professors was; "World Map of Bread: Bread diversity made known by multiple analyses of Saccharomyces cerevisiae."

Professor Nagano and Professor Suzuki have succeeded in DNA polymorphic analysis of yeast from "small pieces of bread" and created a global yeast phylogenetic tree. The tree shows us the historical and geological background of yeasts and bread in the world.

"A lot of indigenous yeast strains have been disappearing all around the world. We hope that our research could contribute to reserve as many original yeasts as possible in the future," said the two professors expressing their commitments to research and their strong hope for success when they heard the news of the awarding.