〓 Research Area : Plant Pathology

For the control of crop diseases caused by a fungal
pathogen Rhizoctonia solani
Rhizoctonia solani is a soil-borne fungal phytopathogen causing rice
sheath blight as well as seedling damping-off or root rot in various
crops. Management of this pest is difficult and it gives rise to serious
damage in agriculture and economies. An experimental pathosystemusing Brachypodium distachyon, an emerging model plant, revealed
plant immunity mechanism against this pathogen leading to a novel
insight into the fungal infection strategy. Fungal proteinaceous weapons
called effectors are now being investigated.

Molecular basis of a biological control agent for crowngall disease in grapevine
Grape is one of the major fruits produced in Okayama. It suffers serious damage from grown gall disease which is caused by Rhizobium
vitis Ti strain. A non-pathogenic strains of R. vitis have been isolated
as biological control of this pest. The molecular mechanism underlying
this suppression activity is investigating and we found a potential causal substance produced by this biocontrol agent.

〓 Assoc. Prof.
NOUTOSHI Yoshiteru

Isolation and characterization of plant defense activators for sustainable agriculture
Plant defense activators exhibit cop protection activity by priming or inducing plant
immune response. We established a quantitative assay method for plant defense
response and identified potential compounds through a high-throughput screeningof several commercial libraries of organic small molecules as well as a laboratory-made small cyclic peptides. They can be used for not only lead compounds todevelop agrochemicals but also molecular probe to understand plant immunity.

〓 Research Area : Plant Genetics and Breeding

Genetic study on instability of flowering time in wheat
and barley under global warming conditions
Global climate change has a huge impact on crop production. For wheat and barley productionin Japan, warm winter has been arising as a serious problem which would cause yield decrease
and low quality.
So far, early-flowering (heading) varieties of wheat and barley have been developed to avoid
pre-harvest sprouting and Fusarium head blight, which could often be caused by monsoonal rain
during maturing and harvesting stages. However, most of early-flowering varieties show “instabilityof flowering time” in response to ambient temperature. They differentiate young spike primordium
extremely earlier in warmer winter than in ordinary years. Unexpectedly precocious spike development will result in yield decrease due to less biomass production and frost injury caused bytransient chills in early spring.
To solve the problem, it is necessary to disclose genetic mechanism underlying the instability offlowering time. For this goal, we are working on (1) identification of novel flowering-time genes
and their interaction with other flowering-time genes, (2) finding genes which do not promote
flowering very much even under warm winter condition, and (3) disclosing the genetic mechanism
underlying the instability of flowering through molecular genetic study.

〓 Assoc. Prof.
NISHIDA Hidetaka

Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University59