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Research Interests
Professor Ku's current research has been focused on metabolic engineering of crops for enhanced productivity. Using Agrobaterium-mediated transformation system, several C4 photosynthetic genes from maize have been introduced into rice with high efficiencies and high levels of expression. Most importantly, these transgenic rice plants exhibit enhanced photosynthetic capacity and growth. Manipulation of other important genes involved in growth and resistance to stress in important crops is also under way.
Representative Publications
Taniguichi, M., K. Izawa, M. S. B. Ku, J.-H. Lin, H. Saito, Y. Ishida, S. Ohata, T. Komari, M. Matsuoka, and T. Sugiyama. 2001. The promoter for the maize C4 pyruvate, orthophosphate dikinase gene directs cell- and tissue-specific transcription in transgenic maize plants. Plant Mol. Biol., in press.
Nomura, M., N. Sentoku, A. Nishmura, J.-H. Lin, C. Honda, M. Taniguchi, Y. Ishida, S. Ohta, T. Komari, M. Miyao-Tokutomi, Y. Kano-Murakami, S. Tajima, M. S. B. Ku, and M. Matsuoka. 2000. The evolution of C4 plants: acquisition of cis-regulatory sequences in the promoter of C4-type pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase gene. Plant J. 22: 211-221.
Ku, M. S. B., D. Cho, U. Ranade, T.-P. Hsu, X. Li, D. Jiao, J. Ehleringer, M. Miyao, and M. Matsuoka. 2000. Photosynthetic performance of transgenic rice plants expressing the maize C4 photosynthesis enzymes. In, Redesigning Rice Photosynthesis to Improve Yield (J. Sheehy, P. L. Mitchell, and B. Hardy, eds.), Elservier/IRRI press, pp. 193-204.
Ku, M. S. B., S. Agarie, M. Nomura, H. Fukuyama, H. Tsuchida, K. Ono, S. Hirose, S. Toki, M. Miyao-Tokutomi, and M. Matsuoka. 1999. High-level expression of maize phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in transgenic rice plants. Nature Biotech. 17: 72-80.
Imaizumi, N., M. S. B. Ku, K. Ishihara, M. Samejima, S. Kaneo, and M. Matsuoka. 1997. Characterization of the gene for pyruvate, orthophosphate dikinase from rice, a C3 plant, and a comparison of structure and expression between C3 and C4 genes for this protein. Plant Mol. Biol. 34: 701-716.