Dr. Yukiko Kabeya (Technical staff) and Assist. Prof. Yosuke Tamada in collaboration with Drs. Yohei Higuchi (Univ. Tokyo), Yoshikatsu Sato (Nagoya Univ.), and Chaoyang Cheng.

Both wounding and light are necessary to change Physcomitrella gametophore leaf cells to chloronema apical stem cells. We are working to examine whether SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINGIG PROTEIN regulated by HIRA, a histone chaperon, is a key factor for the crosstalk between wounding and light.

1. Function of STEMIN, whose induction changes differentiated cells to stem cells
2. Epigenetic regulation during stem cell formation
3. Role of auxin in stem cell formation
4. Common factor for stem cell formation between animals and plants
5. A factor to connect light and wounding signals in stem cell formation
6. A role of histone chaperon HIRA in stem cell formation
7. Role of ING in stem cell formation
8. Cell cycle reentry from the late S or G2 phase
9. Role of epigenetic regulation in stem cell formation