Name Yukihiro ITO
Affiliation Associate Professor
Tel +81-22-757-4233
Fax +81-22-757-4232
Mail yukihiro.ito.e7*tohoku.ac.jp(Please replace * with @)
Research Interest Plant genetic engineering, Plant molecular genetics
Career Education: B.S. Faculty of Agriculture, Tohoku Univ. (1990), MC and DC of Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku Univ. PhD (Agri.)(1995) Research Experience: Assis. Prof., Natl. Inst. Genet. (1995-2007), Assoc. Prof., Tohoku Univ. (2007―)
Research map https://researchmap.jp/yukito?lang=en
Research Projects
  1. Development of food/biorefinery dual use rice plants
    Use of renewable sources such as biomass is one of the approaches to overcome the climate change and the global warming. Every year a huge amount of rice straws is produced as by-product of rice production, but they are not used effectively. To use rice straws as an efficient source for biorefinery, we have been studying enhancement of saccharification yields from rice straws.
  2. Production of useful proteins with extremely low cost in rice
    Spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria, which appeared due to the use of huge amount of antibiotics in human medicine and livestock production, has become a thread on public health. To overcome this problem, development of new medicines that replace antibiotics is necessary. Antimicrobial proteins/peptides are suitable candidates, but its production cost prevents their use in livestock production. We have been studying development of protein production systems with extremely low cost in rice.
  3. Studies on a genetic pathway that regulates shoot regeneration from rice callus.
    Shoot regeneration from callus is an essential technique to generate transgenic rice plants. Cytokinin is known to induce shoot regeneration by activating expression of genes required for formation of shoot apical meristem. Although cytokinin signalling pathway is well studied, it is not known how cytokinin induces the expression of such genes. We have been studying a genetic pathway that regulates shoot regeneration from rice callus.