Institute of Plant Science and Resources

Applied Genomics Unit
Group of Genome Regulation
Professor Masahiko Maekawa
Assistant Professor Kazuhide Rikiishi
Assistant Professor Shigeko Utsugi
Sustainable agriculture and a sufficient supply of food are important subjects for
people seeking to live harmoniously in a natural environment in the 21st century. In
this group, greater production efficiency of crops by functional analyses of
transposon-tagged genes and introgression or genomic rearrangement from wild
species and the mechanism of gene expression by phytohormones are being studied.
1) Breeding of DNA transposon, nDart-tagged lines and functional analyses of the
causative genes for the tagged mutants in rice.
2) Development of vigorous rice through introgression from wild rice and analysis of
the causative factors.
3) Analysis of regulatory mechanisms for seed dormancy in gramineous crops.
Strategy of breeding of DNA transposon, nDart-tagged
lines and functional analyses of tagged genes.
-ABA
+ABA
Development of vigorous rice (left) derived
from F2 of the cross between Oryza
longistaminata and T-65 under non-fertilized
conditions. Norin 18 is shown as a control at
right.
Norin61
Mutant
ABA-insensitive mutant isolated from a dormant
wheat cultivar, Norin61.
Localization of TaTIP3;1 by immunofluorescence in
wheat aleurone cells during seed ripening. TaTIP3;1
was accumulated in aleurone cells at late stages of
seed development (right), was not accumulated in
the cells at the early stages (left).