Cell Function Research Team

Uncovering and utilizing the regulatory network underlying plant organ growth and regeneration

Team Director

Keiko Sugimoto Ph.D.

2000: Ph.D., Australian National University, Australia
2000: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, John Innes Centre, UK
2003: Japan Society for Promotion of Science Fellow, John Innes Centre, UK
2005: Group Leader, John Innes Centre, UK
2007: Unit Leader, Cell Function Research Unit, RIKEN Plant Science Center
2012: Team Leader, Cell Function Research Team, RIKEN Plant Science Center
2013: Team Director, Cell Function Research Team, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (-current)

Main Research Fields :	Biology
Related Research Fields :	Agricultural Sciences
Keywords :	Cell proliferation / Cell differentiation / Cell dedifferentiation / totipotency / regeneration
Strategic Program :	Sustainable Bioproduction

Outline

We investigate how plants integrate developmental and environmental cues to maximise organ growth under the changing environment. We also explore how plants establish and maintain cellular differentiation status and how various stress stimuli override the developmental commitments to undergo cellular reprogramming. These strategies should allow us to identify key modulators of organ growth and reprogramming, thus providing molecular basis for crop improvement.

Subjects

Molecular dissection of plant organ growth
Molecular dissection of cellular reprogramming in plants
Molecular manipulation of organ regeneration in crops

The shoot apical meristem in Arabidopsis: As cells leave the meristem, they switch from the mitotic cycle to the endoreduplication cycle and start to differentiate.

The leaf trichome cell in Arabidopsis: Arabidopsis trichome cells increase their cell volume hundreds of times their original size through endoreduplication.