Akira Abe

The paper identifies the sex chromosome in white Guinea yam and describes a miRNA-mediated sex determination system involving a 1.2-Mb inversion and a W-specific microRNA gene.

This study manipulates gene copy number in rice to fine-tune agronomic traits, showing that increasing OsMADS18 copies leads to longer leaf and culm lengths.

The paper presents a genomic breeding strategy using large-scale recombinant populations and prediction models to rapidly develop rice cultivars with desired traits.

The paper shows that GBP and thaumatin-domain proteins engage in coevolutionary dynamics in rice apoplast to defend against Magnaporthe oryzae.

The paper studies the evolution of an X-A balance sex determination system in hops by analyzing genome sequences of two hop species and identifies a candidate gene involved in the system.

The paper identifies two candidate genes involved in sex determination in the dioecious wild yam Dioscorea tokoro using whole-genome sequencing and genetic analysis.

The paper identifies STT3A as a gene required for recognizing pathogen-derived sphingolipids in Arabidopsis, showing its role in plant immunity through post-translational modifications.

The paper shows that the rice NLR-ID receptor Pii2 indirectly recognizes the fungal effector AVR-Pii by dissociating Pii2 from host Exo70 proteins, revealing a novel mechanism of pathogen recognition.

This paper identifies GF14h as the causal gene for low-temperature seed germination in rice and demonstrates its utility in breeding for direct seeding in cold climates.

The paper introduces updated pipelines for MutMap and QTL-seq that are faster, easier to use, and more accessible via bioconda.

RIL-StEp identifies epistatic gene interactions in rice seed hull color using SNP data from recombinant inbred lines.

The paper identifies two NBS-LRR genes, Pii-1 and Pii-2, that together confer resistance to rice blast disease in rice.