– Control microorganisms to protect agricultural plants –

Agricultural and forest lands are home to a wide variety of microorganisms that have a diverse impact on plants. Some are pathogens that often cause severe damage to agricultural and forestry production. On the other hand, some microorganisms live in symbiosis with plants and contribute to the health and vitality of their host plants. Therefore, it is essential to control these microorganisms in order to stabilize and improve agricultural and forestry production. Our goal is to clarify the characteristics of these harmful and useful microorganisms and their relationships with other organisms from a biological perspective, and to contribute to the protection of useful plants and the improvement of agricultural and forestry productivity.

Research projects

• Analysis of the mechanism for sexual spore formation in Bipolaris maydis

KEYWORDS: ascospore formation, meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA, sexual reproduction, septin, Bipolaris maydis

• Studies on the relationships between the dicarboximide resistance and the response systems to environmental stresses in filamentous fungi

KEYWORDS: dicarboximide, phenylpyrrole, fungicide resistance, osmotic stress signaling, histidine kinase, response regulator, MAP kinase

• Studies on the relationships between the polyoxin resistance and the mechanism responsible for reddish-brown colonies in Bipolaris maydis

KEYWORDS: polyoxin, reddish-brown colony, fungicide resistance, secondary metabolite, pleiotropy

• Studies on the mode of action of the fungicide tolnifanide and its selective toxicity to Pleosporales fungi

KEYWORDS: fungicide tolnifanide, selective toxicity, GGTase-I, Pleosporales

• Analyses of two sensing pathways that regulate infection structure formation for invasion into host plant

KEYWORDS: appresorium formation, host-derived component, surface hydrophobicity, sensor protein, MAP kinase cascade, signal transduction

• Molecular genetics on hyphal surface hydrophobicity in filamentous fungi

KEYWORDS: hyphal hydrophobicity, adhesion, plant pathogen, secondary metabolite

• Analyses of biological functions of hydrophobins, amphiphilic secretory protein characteristic of filamentous fungi 

KEYWORDS: filamentous fungus, hydrophobin, solid surface, adhesion, biopolymer degradation

• Screening for small secreted proteins (SSPs) in filamentous fungi and their functional analyses

KEYWORDS: small secreted proteins, filamentous fungus, biopolymer degradation, adhesion, invasion

• etc