The 55th NIBB Conference
Frontiers of Plant Science in the 21st CenturyConference Review |
Reports |
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Report on the Panel Discussion
1. How should we lay out post-Arabidopsis research?
Tsuyoshi Aoyama (NIBB / SOKENDAI, Japan) In the 20th century, research using Arabidopsis thaliana contributed to remarkable progress in plant science. The establishment of transformation techniques and decoding of the genomic information of A. thaliana made it possible to understand many phenomena at the molecular level. As a result, many genes and signaling pathways were identified. These studies demonstrated the importance of model plants in basic science.
However, in many areas of research, solving problems using only A. thaliana is difficult. In the field of basic science, the diversity of mechanisms and interesting phenomena observed in specific plants are a good example. In applied science, understanding practical plant materials is important. One must use varied plant materials to investigate these problems. Moreover, research using plant material other than A. thaliana must be of the same high quality as that done with A. thaliana. However, some barriers exist in using non-model plants as research materials and these are dependent upon the species used. Regardless, two basic problems are common to many plants. One is the lack of genomic information, and the other is the difficulty of transformation. Overcoming these problems will drive research forward by applying diverse plant materials. Fortunately, many genomes have now been evaluated, and more and more will be analyzed in the future. For plants, however, genomic information is still relatively scarce. Promotion of plant genome projects is needed, but recent innovations in sequencing technology allow every scientist to conduct research at the genome level. The availability of next generation sequencers also accelerates research using various plants. Transformation techniques are critical to research at the molecular level. The development of transformation techniques, however, is very difficult. The establishment of a transformation center, in which people develop new transformation technologies for different plant materials, is also an effective way to drive research forward using new plant materials. If these goals can be accomplished, many new areas of investigation will be open to study. For example, the evolution of a stem cell system is one such newly raised research topic. The meristem, a stem cell system in plants, is one of the most important facets of plant development. Thus, many investigations are being conducted on the meristem using model plants. However, if we direct our focus to a variety of plants, we notice that several types of meristems exist. Combined with evolutionary history, comparison of the different types of meristems will provide insight into the evolution of the meristem. Genome swapping, which involves making a genomic hybrid between two different species, may also allow greater insights into plant science. Genomic information and transformation technologies for many different plant materials will make it possible to construct such a hybrid. If we reconstruct the genetics responsible for a given phenomenon, we will able to reconstruct the phenomenon itself. From this point of view, genomic hybrids may be useful in the comparison of different mechanisms between two species and in the identification of valuable genetic resources. In the 20th century, scientists concentrated on the identification and analysis of genes. In the 21st century, the manipulation of these genes is likely to become a practical tool for elucidating the mechanisms of organisms in great detail. ≫ Audience comments and questions |
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