Professor Toru Terachi

■ Area and Subject Taught: Plant Molecular Genetics, Plant Breeding
■ Research Theme(s): Molecular Genetics of Higher Plant Organelles
■ Academic Degrees: Doctor of Agriculture, Kyoto University
■ Keywords for Research Field: Higher Plants, Organellar Genome, Wheat, Radish

[Research Overview]

I am interested in a variety of topics related to organellar (chloroplast and mitochondrial) genes and genomes in higher plants, with a particular focus on chloroplast transformation technology. Chloroplast genomes have not only provided valuable information on the phylogenies of plants, but in recent years genomes have also become the target of genetic engineering. In my laboratory, several projects have been carried out in the attempt to create transplastomic tobacco plants with useful genes in their chloroplast genome. We are also using molecular genetic and molecular biological methods to carry out research on mitochondrial genes that cause male sterility in plants such as radishes and common wheat, as well as research on nuclear genes that suppress action of mitochondrial genes and restore fertility.

[Notable Publications and Works in the Last Three Years]

1. Inter-and intraspecific sequence variations of the chloroplast genome in wild and cultivated Raphanus . Plant Breeding. 2008, 128: 172-177.
2. Inhibition of chalcone synthase expression in anthers of Raphanus sativus with Ogura male sterile cytoplasm. Ann. Bot. (Lond). 2008, 102: 483-489.
3. Restricted distribution of orf687 as the pollen fertility restorer gene for Ogura male sterility in Japanese wild radish. Breeding Sci. 2008, 58: 177-182.
4. Genetic and molecular analysis of the restoration of fertility (Rf ) genes for Ogura male-sterility from a Japanese wild radish (Raphanus sativus var. hortensis f. raphanistroides Makino) . Euphytica 2008, 164: 395-404.
5. Structural dynamics of cereal mitochondrial genomes as revealed by complete nucleotide sequencing of the wheat mitochondrial genome. Nuc. Acids Res. 2005, 33: 6235-6250.
6. Variations in a hotspot region of chloroplast DNAs among common wheat and Aegilops revealed by nucleotide sequence analysis. Genes Genet. Syst. 2005, 80: 277-285.
7. Cloning and structural analysis of wheat cDNAs encoding Ndr protein kinase homolog by data mining of the EST database KOMUGI. Breeding Sci. 2005, 55:207-212.
8. Production of alloplasmic wheats: the ultimate way of organelle genome engineering. Tanpakushitsu Kakusan Koso. 2005, 50: 1808-1812. (in Japanese)