National Institute for Basic Biology
NIBB supported travel expenses and accommodation costs for young researchers of both NIBB and other Japanese universities, who will start collaborative research project with MPIPZ.
Researchers (supported in 2009 FY)
From 25th February to 28th February, 2010
Nobuyuki Maruyama (Assoc. Prof., Kyoto University)
Cerrone Cabano (Graduate student, Kyoto University)
From 26th February to 3rd March, 2010
Toshinori Kinoshita (Assoc. Prof., Nagoya University)
From 15th February to 6th March, 2010
Kenji Yamada (Assist. Prof., NIBB)
Report on Visit to MPIPZ
The ER body, which is found in seedlings and roots of Arabidopsis thaliana, is an organelle derived from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and its function has yet to be unraveled. ER body formation is induced by wounding and jasmonic acid treatment, suggesting that the ER body is involved in resistance responses against herbivorous insects and pathogens. Since the ER body contains high amounts of a β-glucosidase, PYK10, it is suggested that antimicrobial substances are produced from some glucosides as a substrate in the ER body.
Therefore I visited the Max Plank Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) to start a collaborative research project on ER body function with Dr. Paul Schülze-Lefert and Dr. Pawel Bednarek, together with Ryohei Nakano (Graduate student of Kyoto University).
Through the collaborative research, we achieved interesting results concerning the functions of the ER body in plants, and we believe that our findings will be a clue leading toward the discovery of totally unexpected phenomenon regarding the function of the ER body. During my stay at MPIPZ, I had discussions with MPIPZ’s researchers and good opportunities to learn cutting-edge information, which has not yet been published. I would like to continue the collaborative research with Dr. Paul Schülze-Lefert and Dr. Pawel Bednarek, and to publish a paper about the results of the collaborative project.
(Kenji Yamada)
