〓 Research Area : Plant Diversity Analysis

Study on genetic diversity of crop species towardachieving sustainable crop productivity
Genetic diversity of target species is indispensable sources to breed new crop varieties to overcome food shortages under global environmental changes and population explosions. IPSR
preserves more than 10,000 barley germplasm as not only for the research materials for plantscience but also future resources to improve this crop species. The aims of our seed-bank activity
as well as our research projects are to grasp the degree of the variation of traits associated withstress tolerance and ‘high-yield’ productivity and to understand genetic structure of the trait formining the phenotypic diversity.
Deciphering the genetic diversity of domesticated barley spreading the entire world, we are evaluating agronomic traits such as vernalization requirement and salt tolerance at the germination
stage. Genomic variation of the barley materials is explored using the next generation sequencing(NGS) technologies to make advances in our barley domestication history research. To uncover
the genetic structure of the agronomic traits, multiple mapping populations such as recombinant
inbred lines (RIL), chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSL) and nested association mapping population (NAM) are also developing, and the quantitative trait loci (QTL) corresponding to
the agronomic traits are identifying.

〓 Assoc. Prof.
SAISHO Daisuke〓 Research Area : Plant Diversity Analysis

Identification of the genes responsible fortransformation amenability in barley
Different plant cultivars of the same genus and species
can exhibit vastly different genetic transformation efficiencies. However, the genetic factors underlying these differences in transformation rate remain largely unknown. Inbarley (Hordeum vulgare), ‘Golden Promise’ is the mostuseful and well-studied cultivar for genetic transformation.
By contrast, cultivar ‘Haruna Nijo’ is recalcitrant to geneticmanipulation, although numerous genomic resources
have been developed for this haplotype. Recently, weidentified three major genomic regions on chromosomes
2H and 3H in barley important for successful transformation with Agrobacterium, utilizing the ‘Haruna Nijo’ ×‘Golden Promise’ F2 generation. We termed these loci asFig. Green shoots regenerating
Transformation Amenability (TFA) responsible for Agrofrom callus of barleybacterium-mediated transformation.
The genomic regions identified herein likely include necessary factors (i.e. regeneration fromcallus) for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in barley. The potential to introduce these lociinto any haplotype of barley opens the door to increasing the efficiency of transformation for target alleles into any haplotype of barley by the TFA-based selection method. Now we are trying toisolate the genes responsible for TFAs.

〓 Assoc. Prof.
HISANO Hiroshi

Genome editing in barley

Genome editing is a new technology of genetic engineering in which DNA is inserted, replaced,or removed from a target genome sequence using artificial restriction enzymes (nucleases). We
are now developing a method of mutagenesis by the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats /CRISPR-associated proteins 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) or other techniques for future
breeding and functional genomics in barley.

Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University53