Kimitsune Ishizaki, Ph.D.

Professor, Division of Biomolecular Organization, Cell Function

Research Interests

Multicellularity emerged independently in plants and animals. There are crucial differences between the development of land plants and animals, such as, cell movement, germline, rigidity, and plasticity etc… We are interested in the fundamental regulatory mechanism of multicellularity in plants, and how the regulatory system diverged in the evolution of land plants.
Emergence of land plants, approximately 480 million years ago, was one of the major events for the life on planet earth. Liverworts, as extant representatives of the earliest land plants, are a key group to understand the regulatory mechanisms and the evolution of plant development. Marchantia polymorpha is a common, well-propagating, dioecious liverwort species, and the haploid gametophytic generation dominates over the diploid sporophytic generation in its life cycle. We focus on the potential of M. polymorpha as a model plant for molecular genetics, and have been developing crucial experimental procedures and resources, such as efficient genetic transformation, induction of reproductive growth in laboratory condition, genetic map, establishment of standard line, mutagenesis, EST, and genomic sequencing. Our system founded on M. polymorpha should contribute to fundamental understanding of the regulatory mechanisms that mediate plant development and the evolution of the developmental machinery in plants.

Research Focus

1. Regulatory mechanism of vegetative reproduction in the liverwort M. polymorpha.
2. Molecular genetics of gametophyte development using M. polymorpha as a model.

Recent Publications

• Ishizaki, K. (2017)
  Evolution of land plants: insights from molecular studies on basal lineages.
  Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 81: 73-80.
  
• Ishizaki, K., Nishihama, R., Yamato, K.T. and Kohchi, T.(2016)
  Molecular genetic tools and techniques for Marchantia polymorpha research.
  Plant and Cell Physiology 57: 262-270.
  
• Ishizaki, K., Nishihama, R., Ueda, M., Inoue, K., Ishida, S., Nishimura, Y., Shikanai, T. and Kohchi, T. (2015)
  ADevelopment of Gateway binary vector series with four different selection markers for the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha L.
  PLoS One 10: e0138876.
  
• Kato, H., Ishizaki, K., Kouno, M., Shirakawa, M., Bowman, J.L., Nishihama, R. and Kohchi, T. (2015)
  Auxin-mediated transcriptional system with a minimal set of components is critical for morphogenesis through the life cycle in Marchantia polymorpha L.
  PLoS Genetics 11: e1005084.
  
• Eklund, D.M.+, Ishizaki, K.+, Flores-Sandoval, E., Kikuchi, S., Takebayashi, Y., Tsukamoto, S., Hirakawa, Y., Nonomura, M., Kato, H., Kouno, M., Bhalerao, R.P., Lagercrantz, U., Kasahara, H., Kohchi, T. and Bowman, J.L. (2015)
  Auxin produced by the indole-3-pyruvic acid pathway regulates development and gemmae dormancy in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha L.
  Plant Cell 27: 1650-1669.
  +These authors contributed equally to this work.
• Ishizaki, K., Mizutani, M., Shimamura, M., Masuda, A., Nishihama, R. and Kohchi, T (2013)
  Essential role of the E3 ubiquitin ligase NOPPERABO1 in schizogenous intercellular space formation in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha L.
  Plant Cell 25: 4075-4084.
  
• Ishizaki, K., Johzuka-Hisatomi, Y. Ishida, S., Iida, S., and Kohchi, T. (2013)
  Homologous recombination-mediated gene targeting in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha L.
  Scientific Reports 3: 1532, doi: 10.1038/srep01532
  
• Ishizaki, K., Nonomura, M., Kato, H., Yamato, K.T. and Kohchi, T. (2012)
  Visualization of auxin-mediated transcriptional activation using a common auxin-responsive reporter system in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha.
  J. Plant Res. 125: 643-651.
• Ishizaki, K., Chiyoda, S., Yamato, K.T. and Kohchi, T. (2008)
  Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of the haploid liverwort Marchantia polymorpha L., an emerging model for plant biology.
  Plant Cell Physiol. 49: 1084-1091.
• Yamato K.T.,Ishizaki, K. et al. (2007)
  Gene organization of the liverwort Y chromosome reveals distinct sex chromosome evolution in a haploid system.
  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104: 6472-6477.
• Ishizaki, K., Larson, T.R., Schauer, N., Fernie, A.R., Graham, I.A. and Leaver, C.J. (2005)
  The critical role of Arabidopsis electron-transfer flavoprotein:ubiquinone oxidereductase during dark-induced starvation.
  Plant Cell 17: 2587-2600.

Contact

Office:　Building C, room 412, (lab: room 416/413)　

Tel:　+81-78-803-5727

Fax:　+81-78-803-5727

E-mail:　kimi@emerald.kobe-u.ac.jp