Iwateyamanashi (Pyrus ussuriensis var. aromatica) is one of the Pyrus species grown wild in the Tohoku district of Japan. It had been utilized at least until 1940’s as food, traditional medicine, or timber. Nowadays it is not only forgotten among local people but also facing to extinction. Therefore author focused on Iwateyamanashi as genetic resources, performed explorations since 1999 to cover all three Prefectures of North Tohoku district. More than 1500 Pyrus trees were found and 80 % of those were distributed in the Kitakami highland in Iwate Pref. Conservation methods and units for true native Iwateyamanashi populations, suggested by populational genetic structure analysis, were considered. In order to reveal the origin of Iwateyamanashi, populational genetic structure and phylogenetic analyses were also conducted for native Ussurian pears in China. Iwateyamanashi possesses various unique and useful traits those were not found in Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia). Flavor as one of useful traits, flavor analysis, QTL mapping related to flavor compounds, and aromatic pear breeding program are described. Author expects to increase the visibility of Iwateyamanashi by using as genetic resources then it will be conserved. Finally project of “flowering Iwateyamanashi in schoolyard” as a symbol of recovery from the Tohoku earthquake in 2011 will be introduced.

View full abstract

Predecessor of Kinki Agri High-tech was established in 1989, with the aim of spreading advanced technology of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, and Food industries, which was corporateized in 2006, to be a non-profit-organization. Forming a consortium with 6 organizations such as Japan Association for Techno-innovation in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, we received commission from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for “Industry-Academia Collaboration Support Projects by Knowledge Integration”. 1. Our main activities are as follows. 1） Holding lectures, and symposiums. 2） Holding the exhibitions of research results and the meetings for technology exchange. 3） Supporting the societies for study, such as the society for soybean research in Kinki area. 4） Supporting to get grant funding for research. 2. Case examples of industry-academia collaboration support are as follows. 1） Support of the matching for growth diagnostic research of soybean and the growers, and of getting grant funding for it. 2） Support of matching and getting grant funding for the research and development of “epidemic prevention bag” and support for commercializing the result of it. 3） Support of matching and getting grant funding for practical application of seed sterilization technology using gas-plasma. 4） Support of getting grant funding for the development of new products utilizing distinctive plum varieties, and commercializing the result of it.

View full abstract

Soybean (Glycine max L.) leaves show morphological alteration from simple leaf to compound leaf in accordance with the transition from juvenile phase to adult phase in vegetative development. In order to reveal the genetic mechanism of such a leaf development, the variation of leaf shape was investigated using a variety of soybean groups. The most popular mature leaf phenotype was trifoliate (with three leaflets), but the number of leaflet was increased more than three in accordance with the plant development in some varieties. Morphological analysis suggested that they could be classified into two groups; one is attributable to the multi-foliation of lateral leaflets and the other to the multi-foliation of terminal leaflet. While the mature leaves of the former varieties stably show pentafoliate phenotype (with five leaflets), the latter range from three to seven. For the identification of the genetic factor(s) that cause the morphological alteration in soybean leaves, the M₂ lines derived from the EMS treatment of variety Peking with trifoliate phenotype were investigated. Among them, several lines showed 5-foliate phenotype attributable to the multi-foliation of lateral leaflets in accordance with the plant development. Therefore, it was considered that at least two kind of factors control leaf morphology in soybean; one promotes alteration from simple to compound leaf in accordance with the phase transition and the other repress the number of leaflets.

View full abstract

In rice (Oryza sativa L.), tiller buds on the uppermost and/or a few successive phytomers in a stem usually show dormancy, whereas those on phytomers on basal parts develop tillers and contribute to the determination of panicle number, and finally yield. However, the tiller buds on upper phytomers can eventually develop in response to genetic and non-genetic factors and generate tillers from upper node (upper node tillers, UNTs). In a population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between wild-type parents, Nakateshinsenbon and Milyang 23, the occurrence of upper node tillering (UNTing) was apparently segregated among the RILs at a ratio of 3 wild-type: 1 UNTing type, suggesting some genetic control for UNTing. The present study was conducted to identify the mode of inheritance of UNTing using this RIL population and several segregating populations after crossing of the RILs and the parents. The results suggested strongly that UNTing expression was controlled by two independent loci, UNT1 and UNT2, and also moderately influenced by non-genetic factors, resulting in inconsistency of expression among the RILs between growing years. UNTing should be expressed when the two recessive alleles, unt1 and unt2, are present simultaneously at their two respective loci. Further studies are needed to define these duplicate recessive alleles for UNTing, their genome location and physiological function, toward understanding the mechanism of tiller development.

View full abstract

In rice, spikelet opening is an important process for anthesis to produce seeds. Spikelet opening is greatly affected by temperature, humidity, light, and physical stress. To clarify the important factors for spikelet opening, flowering panicles of Japonica cultivar Nipponbare were observed under four controlled transpiration conditions designated as submergence, shower, oil and high-humidity conditions. The submergence condition was designed to allow transpiration only from panicles. Other three conditions were designed to suppress transpiration from panicles by water, oil and high humidity. For each condition, four panicles with 15 spikelets were prepared, and flowering ratios were recorded on the following afternoon. The examination was repeated for three days, and the averages were compared. Under the submergence condition, many flowered spikelets were observed with the average value of 83.3%. On the other hand, a few or no spikelets flowered in the panicles under the shower (17.8%) and oil conditions (0.6%). Almost half of the spikelets (46.1%) flowered under the high-humidity condition. These average values were all significantly lower than the controls (ca. 92%) without any treatments. These results indicate that transpiration from lemma and palea is necessary to have spikelet opening. In addition, spikelet opening time was observed using a wild accession of O. rufipogon to examine whether transpiration from an awn (a tip organ of the lemma) is associated with flowering time or not. Eight panicles of three wild plants were prepared, and awns of the spikelets were alternatively cut based on the primary branch order. The plants were put outside under the sun, and the exact opening time was recorded in minutes for all the spikelets flowered on the following morning. As a result, average opening times for awned and awnless spikelets were not significantly different to each other. Since opening time was not associated with transpiration from the awns, a precise switch for panicle opening may synchronize with transpiration from the surface of the lemma and/or palea.

View full abstract

The X-ray CT measuring was carried out at SPring-8 under measurement conditions of a pixel size of 25.4μm for the rice seed aggregates excavated from the Karako-Kagi remains and Daifuku remains in the Yayoi period. By analysis of the X-ray CT images of aggregate, it was suggested that all the unhulled rice in the aggregates were classified into Japonica type from the grain shape (length-to-width ratio) and the grain size of unhulled rice in the aggregates were significantly different between the remains. Based on the histogram of the length of unhulled rice, it was suggested that rice grains in each block might originate from single rice variety or rice strain having different grain size between each block. The shattering proportion of unhulled rice in the aggregate of both remains was equivalent to the hard shattering habit of the current cultivar, but the shattering part of unhulled rice was the abscission layer at the base of rachilla. This shattering part is same as the part of the current cultivar with the easy shattering habit. On the other hand, analysis of the thickness of brown rice indicated that the non-shattering unhulled rice may have been harvested before maturing. Based on these findings, it was considered that comprehensive evaluation of the shattering proportion, the shattering part of unhulled rice and the grain filling level was required for the evaluating shattering habit of the unhulled rice in the aggregate excavated.

View full abstract

Long seed awning in wild rice is one of the propagation-related traits in natural habitats. During rice domestication, plants with shorter awns may gradually be selected because long awns disturb seed harvesting and handling. To clarify the domestication process of awnless rice, we first produced 146 backcross recombinant inbred lines at BC₂F₇ generation between Oryza rufipogon W630 (a recurrent parent) and O. sativa IR36 (a donor parent). Of these, a single line of G5 having shortest awns was selected. The G5 backcross recombinant inbred line was found to have IR36 homozygous alleles at 20 out of 167 SSR marker loci, showing seven IR36 chromosomal segments in the wild genetic background. The G5 line was further crossed with W630, and 160 BC₃F₂ progenies were generated. They were planted in the paddy field, and QTL analysis for awnlessness was carried out using awn length data at 5th spikelet position. As a result, one minor QTL and two major QTLs were detected on chromosomes 2 and 4, respectively. According to the associated marker positions, two major QTLs on chromosome 4 seem to be identical to An-1 and LABA1 loci, and the QTL on chromosome 2 may be a novel locus. Although these QTLs explained most of the awn length difference between O. rufipogon W630 and the G5 line, some other minor loci for awnlessness may still exist in the genome of awnless IR36.

View full abstract

Rice field art is a huge artwork of figures or letters drawn in the rice field by planting rice cultivars that have leaf color mutations or colored panicles. These rice cultivars show many kinds of leaf or panicle colors, such as yellow, purple, white or red, but the time at which the colors appear varies with both the rice cultivar and the environment of cultivation. We surveyed the rice field art in Torahime District in Nagahama City and the changes of the rice leaf colors. The changes of rice leaf colors were evaluated using a color measuring instrument, and anthocyanin and green color meters. The leaf colors and the time the color appeared for each rice cultivar are reported in this paper.

View full abstract