Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Keiko Yonekura-Sakakibara

Keiko Yonekura-Sakakibara, co-first author of Seed-coat Protective Neolignans are Produced by the Dirigent Protein AtDP1 and the Laccase AtLAC5 in Arabidopsis

Current Position: Senior Research Scientist, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Japan

Education: Ph.D. in Science, Osaka University, Japan; B.Sc. in Agriculture, Nagoya University, Japan

Non-scientific Interests: traveling, reading, tea ceremony

Brief bio: I started my research career to understand reductant supplying systems to primary metabolism in higher plants. As a scientist at Suntory Ltd, I expanded my interest to plant specialized metabolism (secondary metabolism), especially flavonoid biosynthesis. After move to RIKEN, I focused on functional genomics in plant specialized metabolism based on genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics. Genome-wide approaches to understand functional diversity in metabolic enzymes including glycosyltransferases led me to an evolutionary perspective. Current my research interests are how and why plants produce a huge variety of specialized metabolites and how and why plants gain the ability during the evolutionary process.