Phytochemistry Laboratory (Koji Miyamoto Laboratory)
This laboratory conducts research on how plants protect themselves from various environmental stressors such as pest infections. When plants recognize pathogens, they activate a defense response through signal transduction via various plant hormones and activation of downstream target genes by transcription factors. To clarify these induction mechanisms, we mainly use rice as research material and investigate the functions of plant hormones and transcription factors involved in environmental stress responses. Additionally, we study the synthesis and functions of secondary metabolites that plants accumulate in response to environmental stress.
Basic Information
Faculty name/Affiliation
Koji Miyamoto / Department of Biosciences at the Faculty of Science and Engineering
Specialized Fields
Phytochemistry / plant biotechnology
Research theme
Elucidation of the defense response mechanism of plants against environmental stress
Understanding the functions of plant hormones involved in the disease resistance response of rice plants.
Different plant hormones play a role in inducing plant disease resistance responses. Previously, it has been known that hormones such as jasmonic acid and salicylic acid are important signaling molecules that induce resistance. However, the involvement of cytokinin in disease resistance was not clear. By using genome editing to create rice plants that lack both cytokinin and jasmonic acid, we found that these rice plants were significantly more susceptible to powdery mildew disease. This suggests that both jasmonic acid and cytokinin play a crucial role in the rice's resistance to powdery mildew.
Functional analysis of jasmonic acid receptors in rice
Jasmonic acid, a plant hormone, is known to be involved not only in the growth and development of plants, such as the inhibition of elongation, aging, and formation of male reproductive organs, but also in the stress response of plants. Plant hormones exert various physiological functions by binding to proteins called receptors. Rice has three genes that code for jasmonic acid receptors, but their functions have not been clarified. Currently, to clarify the function of rice jasmonic acid receptors, mutant strains of each receptor are produced and their expression patterns are analyzed.
Regulatory mechanism of production of antimicrobial secondary metabolites in rice
Plants are known to produce various antimicrobial secondary metabolites to protect themselves from infection by pathogenic bacteria. These antimicrobial substances produced by plants are collectively referred to as phytoalexins. Rice produces various phytoalexins, such as momilactone, phytic acid, and sacranine. To date, research has been conducted to uncover the transcriptional regulation mechanism of phytoalexin synthesis genes in order to clarify how rice responds to infection by pathogens and induces the production of phytoalexins. So far, it has been revealed that various transcription factors induce or suppress the transcription of phytoalexin synthesis genes, controlling the production of phytoalexins.
Papers and Conferences Presentation
Paper presentation
Title
Journal title
Laboratory
Contents
Chemical and genetic carotenoid deficiency delays growth in dark-grown Euglena gracilis
Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, 87(5):491-500,
Laboratory of Plant Molecular Cytology / Laboratory of Phytochemistry
The rice wound-inducible transcription factor RERJ1 sharing same signal transduction pathway with OsMYC2 is necessary for defense response to herbivory and bacterial blight
Distribution analysis of anthocyanins, sugars, and organic acids in strawberry fruits using matrix-assisted laser desorption / ionization-imaging mass spectrometry
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