Original Article of Special Report : Proceeding of the 31st Symposium on Arid Land Technology
Approaching the foundation of plants
2018 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 59-60
Details
2018 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 59-60
In recent years, studies on the physiological activities of plants at the genetic level and research on their application have progressed, and these findings are utilized for giving drought tolerance of plants in arid areas, medical care and health. At the research group for Arid Land Technology, with the theme of “Approaching the foundation of plants”, Dr. Teruaki Taji of Professor of Department of Bioscience, Faculty Applied Bio-science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Dr. Takahashi of Discovery Research Development Division of Drug Development, SBI Pharma Co., Ltd. We asked for a two-sided lecturer.Prof. Teruaki Taji, under the theme of Environmental adaptation of plants “whether to take water or protect themselves from disease-causing bacteria”, clarified the mechanism that became the deciding factor” reported with the possibility of new discovery and application. Experiments using Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) showed that Thale Cress having a gene named ACQOS is excellent in disease resistance but impaired osmotic pressure resistance and Thale Cress that lost ACQOS gains high osmotic pressure resistance but disease resistance. Future developments are greatly expected in crop cultivation field.Dr. Takahashi explained why 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is considered to be an important molecule that plays a fundamental function of living organisms with the theme “Various applications of the root substance of 5-aminolevulinic acid” and an introduction was given about application cases and application possibilities in the various fields. Although the physiological action of ALA in living organisms has been known for a long time, it has been proposed to apply ALA as a low-toxicity photo-requiring herbicide in the field of agriculture as a result of the development of large-scale synthesis method of ALA by fermentation method, and after applying to human health care, the process of being applied in today's medical field etc. was a surprising world beyond the original strange impression.
