Harnessing plant functions related to both vegetative and reproductive growth, including biosynthesis of biomass and a great variety of metabolites, leaf formation, and production of flowers and fruits, is increasingly promising for solution of food shortage, energy problems, and environmental problems such as global warming, and for more healthy and fruitful life. Our mission is to elucidate regulatory mechanisms of such plant functions and to develop technologies to control them.
Most of the plant functions are primarily regulated via transcription of specific genes. Therefore, transcription factors, which directly turn on or off expression of the genes, play principal roles in regulation of the plant functions. We have developed a novel gene-silencing technology, CRES-T, and have been improving CRES-T and other technologies, preparing and providing experimental resources, and conducting functional analysis and engineering of important traits in the model and economic plants.
