Events caused by floral induction-Is there a death hormone?

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14549
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Plant molecular biology/Plant physiology
• Research Institution: Nara Institute of Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: ITO Toshiro 奈良先端科学技術大学院大学, バイオサイエンス研究科, 教授 (90517096)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KITAGUCHI Tetsuya 早稲田大学, 総合研究機構, 主任研究員(研究院准教授) (60432374)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: シグナル伝達 / 発現制御 / 発生・分化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In order to identify the so-called death hormone, which is induced by flowering and functions to kill existing meristems, we have worked on epigenetic programs and hormone signaling in flower development. By utilizing transgenic lines developed by our laboratory, we have shown that KNU, a key gene for floral meristem determinacy, negatively regulates the stem cell determinant WUS in a two-step process. We also have developed biosensors for calcium, ATP and phytohormones to detect them quantitative manners in realtime of flower development.

Free Research Field

花発生分子遺伝学