Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Yuki Yoshida

Yuki Yoshida, first author of  The Arabidopsis phyB-9 mutant has a second-site mutation in the VENOSA4 gene that alters chloroplast size, photosynthetic traits, and leaf growth

Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher in Graduate School of Science at The University of Tokyo.

Education: PhD and MS in Graduate School of Science at Kyoto University. BS in Faculty of Science at Kyoto University.

Non-scientific Interests: Enthusiastic orchid grower since my teenage years.

Brief bio: My original interests to wild plants and insects since my childhood led me to initially study ecology, but the beauty of Arabidopsis development learned from Prof. Kiyotaka Okada in an undergraduate lecture convinced me to switch my area. Since then, I have studied the molecular mechanisms of several phenotypic plasticity phenomena, where ecology meets developmental biology, so called Eco-Devo. The plant hormone jasmonate is the key regulator balancing the growth-defense tradeoff, and during my postdoctoral study in Prof. Gregg Howe’s lab at Michigan State University, I constructed the jazQ quintuple knockout mutant of JAZ family genes, which shows enhanced defense and reduced growth. Collaborating with Marcelo Campos, we found that the growth stunting of jazQ was genetically suppressed by a mutation in phytochrome B. This was how I also became interested in photomorphogenesis as another subject of Eco-Devo. I have confidence as one of the best Arabidopsis breeders in the world and I hope my crossing skills will keep contribute to solve the complex genetic systems working behind the plants’ interaction with environmental factors.