Publications by authors named "Takayuki Yazawa"
Background And Aims: Floret opening in barley is induced by the swelling of the lodicule, a trait under the control of the cleistogamy1 (cly1) gene. The product of cly1 is a member of the APETALA2 (AP2) transcription factor family, which inhibits lodicule development. A sequence polymorphism at the miR172 target site within cly1 has been associated with variation in lodicule development and hence with the cleistogamous phenotype.
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- The study investigates how rice plants respond to cadmium (Cd) exposure by examining novel RNA transcripts called cis-natural antisense transcripts (cis-NATs) using strand-specific RNA sequencing.
- Results show that many rice transcripts have corresponding cis-NATs that are influenced by Cd, with a significant number upregulated at various time intervals, indicating a strong response to stress.
- The findings highlight the complexity of plant stress responses, revealing that some cis-NATs are stress-specific and their expression varies with tissue type and stress levels, enhancing our understanding of plant adaptation mechanisms.
Sorghum ( L. Moench) exhibits various color changes in injured leaves in response to cutting stress. Here, we aimed to identify key genes for the light brown and dark brown color variations in tan-colored injured leaves of sorghum.
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- Rice growth is negatively impacted by toxic levels of cadmium (Cd), a heavy metal, prompting research into the molecular responses of rice to Cd stress.
- In a recent study, rice plants were exposed to low concentrations of Cd, resulting in mRNA sequencing that identified about 11,000 transcripts responsive to Cd, many of which overlapped with previous findings from high concentration exposure.
- The research highlights that while constitutively expressed genes show limited response to low Cd, metal ion transporter genes may help identify new strategies for improving Cd tolerance in rice and other cereal crops.
Article Synopsis
- - Sorghum plants change color (from orange to purple) when infected with the fungus Bipolaris sorghicola due to the accumulation of specific compounds called 3-deoxyanthocyanidins.
- - Key genes influencing color variation were identified, including flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase (F3'H) and Tannin1 (Tan1), with specific genetic changes affecting their function in different sorghum strains.
- - The level of expression of the F3'H gene directly correlates with the production of luteolinidin, making it essential for determining the leaf color of sorghum under fungal infection.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how rice plants respond to cadmium (Cd) exposure, a toxic heavy metal that negatively impacts plant growth, by analyzing changes in gene expression using RNA sequencing.
- Findings showed that Cd exposure leads to the upregulation of genes responsible for scavenging reactive oxygen species, metal transport, and drought stress response, indicating a complex transcriptional network linking Cd stress and drought tolerance.
- Insights from this research can inform future strategies to enhance crop tolerance to cadmium and improve plant adaptation to various environmental stresses.
Article Synopsis
- The study focuses on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response in rice, highlighting its role in managing misfolded proteins to maintain cell balance.
- Researchers used RNA sequencing to analyze the expression of genes involved in this process, especially in rice with modified OsIRE1 genes, discovering 380 transcripts that significantly respond to ER stress.
- The findings revealed 17 previously unidentified genes related to ER stress, contributing new insights to the understanding of this biological response in rice plants.
Article Synopsis
- - Spaceflight causes oxidative stress in plants, and a study on Mizuna grown on the International Space Station (ISS) found significant changes in gene expression related to reactive oxygen species (ROS) after 27 days.
- - mRNA analysis revealed that 8,258 transcripts were up-regulated and 14,170 down-regulated in space-grown Mizuna, with 20 out of 32 ROS-related genes showing increased expression, highlighting specific pathways activated in response to space conditions.
- - Overall, the Mizuna adapted well to the space environment, as it exhibited normal growth, suggesting it can reprogram its ROS gene network to cope with the challenges of long-term spaceflight.
Comparative analysis using available genomic resources within closely related species is an effective way to investigate genomic sequence and structural diversity. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) has undergone significant physiological and morphological changes during its domestication and local adaptation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRice has developed several morphological and physiological strategies to adapt to phosphate starvation in the soil. In order to elucidate the molecular basis of response to phosphate starvation, we performed mRNA sequencing of 4 rice cultivars with variation in growth response to Pi starvation as indicated by the shoot/root dry weight ratio. Approximately 254 million sequence reads were mapped onto the IRGSP-1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe recent development of RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technology has enabled us to analyze the transcriptomes of plants and their pathogens simultaneously. However, RNA-seq often relies on aligning reads to a reference genome and is thus unsuitable for analyzing most plant pathogens, as their genomes have not been fully sequenced. Here, we analyzed the transcriptomes of Sorghum bicolor (L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. To modulate their P homeostasis, plants must balance P uptake, mobilisation, and partitioning to various organs. Despite the worldwide importance of wheat as a cultivated food crop, molecular mechanisms associated with phosphate (Pi) starvation in wheat remain unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe describe an interferometer system that uses two separate wavelengths to measure step height. The overlapping interference images detected by a CCD camera are easily separated by an ordinary integrating-bucket method and time-sharing sinusoidal phase modulation, in which two laser diodes are alternately modulated with a sinusoidal signal. A phase map is obtained only for the laser diode into which the modulation signal is injected.
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