Technology Partnership of Nagoya University, Inc.
World Class Research Contributing to Society
Dr. Satoshi Okada
Assistant Professor
Bioscience and Biotechnology Center
Nagoya University, Japan
BIO.
After graduating from the Department of Bioresource Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kobe University in 2013, Dr. Okada received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Bioresource Science, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University. After working with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Fellowships for Young Scientists (DC2 and PD) in the Department of Bioresource Science, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University (2017-2018), he worked as a specially appointed assistant professor with the Institute of Plant Science and Resources, The University of Okayama (2019-2021), and as a specially appointed assistant professor with the Bioscience and Biotechnology Center, Nagoya University (2021-2022) before assuming his current position in June 2022.
The mechanism of heterosis in high-biomass sorghum and its application to breeding
Decarbonization is essential for mitigating the effects of climate change and ensuring a sustainable future. Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is important because plant material is carbon-neutral. Heterosis increases the biomass of many crops, so is valuable in energy production. Despite the importance of heterosis and proposed models of its mechanisms, the genetic mechanisms through which the heterosis of biomass occurs are not yet fully understood. F1 hybrid cultivars of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) have been widely used for forage in Japan, given their large biomass, attracting attention as a raw material for bioenergy and biorefinery. In the F1 breeding of sorghum in Japan, parental seed lines and/or pollen lines have been crossed to evaluate the effects on biomass, and appropriate combinations have been selected. Here, we focused on the biomass of sorghum, and analyzed the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) of the progeny of a high-biomass sorghum F1 hybrid to study the effects on heterosis. As a result, five QTLs were identified for culm length, which were mainly explained using the dominance model. Five resultant homozygous dominant alleles were used to develop pyramided lines, which produced biomass similar to that of the original F1 line. These results will change the breeding strategy used for increasing sorghum biomass.
Selected Publication
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Yoshida H, Okada S, Wang F, Shiota S, Mori M, Kawamura M, et al. Integrated genome-wide differentiation and association analyses identify causal genes underlying breeding-selected grain quality traits in japonica rice. Mol Plant. 2023;16:1460–1477.
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Hashimoto S, Okada S, Araki-Nakamura S, Ohmae-Shinohara K, Miura K, Kawaguchi H, et al. An analysis of sugary endosperm in sorghum: Characterization of mutant phenotypes depending on alleles of the corresponding starch debranching enzyme. Front Plant Sci. 2023;14:1114935.
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Fekih R, Ishimaru Y, Okada S, Maeda M, Miyagi R, Obana T, et al. High-Density Linkage Maps from Japanese Rice japonica Recombinant Inbred Lines Using Genotyping by Random Amplicon Sequencing-Direct (GRAS-Di). Plants. 2023;12:929.
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Okada S, Iijima K, Hori K, Yamasaki M. Genetic and epistatic effects for grain quality and yield of three grain-size QTLs identified in brewing rice (Oryza sativa L.). Mol Breed. 2020;40:88.
Full list of Publication