Bilateral collaboration between Japan and Denmark: Renewable Energy and Environment - 08.06.2011

With the purpose of establishing a new collaboration within the research area "Renewable Energy and Environment" the Danish Research Council supports bilateral network activities between Danish and Japanese cell wall scientists.

 

Section for Plant Glycobiology at Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology at LIFE has become one of Europe’s leading centres for plant cell wall research, especially since the recent (2009) appointment of two professors in this area, William Willats and Peter Ulvskov. Major research themes of the Section for Plant Glycobiology include the biosynthesis, evolution and industrial utilisation of plant cell walls and the research facilities include state of the art infrastructure for plant glycobiology including carbohydrate microarrays and equipment for the separation, purification and analysis of oligo- and polysaccharides.

Japan also has a very strong tradition in plant glycobiology, in particular in metabolic regulation during cell wall differentiation and the biochemistry of carbohydrate-active enzymes. The Japanese scientists have establishes an ad hoc research consortium "The Cell Wall Network", represented by Prof. Demura, Nara Institute of Science and Technology & RIKEN.

 

The grant for bilateral network activities facititates establishing a new collaboration between Danish and Japanese scientists. Professor William Willats explains:

- We have never had the opportunity to meet and exchange knowledge and ideas. Thus the bilateral network activities provides an excellent opportunity to get to know each other and to establish a significant new collaboration which has not been explored in the past.

 

 

Associate Professor Naomi Geshi, one of the applicants on the Danish side, is a Japanese citizen living in Denmark for several years. Her knowledge and understanding of both cultures will facilitate and support communication between scientists from the Danish and Japanese research environments.

 

Visitors from Japan in June
As a part of the activities, the section of Glycobiology will receive three visiting scientists from Japan in June, 2011. if you are interested in contacting them during their stay, please get in touch with Naomi Geshi (ext 33487; )

Dr. Arata Yoneda (June 6-10)
Dr. Yoneda is a senior postdoc in Prof. Demura’s team in RIKEN, Yokohama, who identified a chemical “cobtorin” {4-[(2-chlorophenyl)-meth- oxy]-1-nitrobenzene} which disturbs the parallel deposition of cellulose microfibrils and cortical microtubules. His current research interest is to identify the binding target of cobtorin in the cell wall components. Ref: Yoneda et al. Plant J (2010) 64, 657-667.

 

Dr. Yoneda will give a seminar on June 7 at 10 AM in H117-3 & K117-2. The title of the seminar is "Cobtorin, a novel inhibitor that highlightes a functional interaction between pectin side chains and cellulose microfibrils"

Dr. Kenji Yamada (June 14-15)
Dr. Yamada is an assistant professor in National Institute for Basic Research, Okazaki, Japan, who has identified key factors for biogenesis of organelle “ER body” which is a spindle-shaped organelle derived from ER. There are two types of ER bodies, constitutive- and inducible-type, and the latter is induced under pathogen attack indicating involvement of the organelle in defence reaction. Ref: Yamada et al. Plant Cell (2008) 20: 2529-2540

 

Dr. Yamada will give a seminar on June 14 at 10 AM in H117-3 & K117-2. The title of the seminar is "Molecular mechanisms of endoplasmic reticulum body formation in Arabidopsis thaliana".

Dr. Makoto Hayashi (June 15-17)
Dr. Hayashi is the Associate professor in National Institute for Basic Research, Okazaki, Japan. His research interest widespreads with respect to peroxisome, e.g., biogenesis and transition of glyoxisome/peroxisome, protein transport mechanisms, and enzymes in the organelle. Ref: Kanai et al. (2010) Plant J 62, 936-947

Dr. Hayashi will give a seminar on June 16 at 1 PM in H117-3 & K117-2. The title of the seminar is "Functional Diversity of Plant Peroxisome".

 

For more information:

Please contact Professor William Willats, Professor Peter Ulvskov or Associate Professor Naomi Geshi or read more about the research at Section for Plant Glycobiology.