Regulation of the KNOX-GA Gene Module Induces Heterophyllic Alteration in North American Lake Cress

Author Profile

Hokuto Nakayama

Current Position: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Fellow, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kyoto Sangyo University.

Education: PhD (2010) Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan.

Non-scientific Interests: Music, basketball, skateboarding, and fishing.

When I was a kid, I would read field guides to fishes and reptiles and pictorial books on cars and motorcycles (unfortunately, not so many books on plants...). Looking back, I guess I have always been interested in forms and designs regardless of whether they are made by nature or man. As a master student I investigated the expression patterns of MADS-box genes in monocot flowers. I was fascinated by the diversity of plant forms and got interested in the mechanisms underlying morphological diversification. This led me to a PhD study focusing on the evolutionary acquisition and diversification of cladodes, the leaf-like organ found in the genus Asparagus. In addition to the diversity among species, there is morphological diversity within a single plant depending on the developmental stages or environmental conditions. I was fortunate enough to gain the opportunity to study leaf form alteration in response to environment, called heterophylly, in semi-aquatic plant Rorippa aquatica. This work revealed that the same regulatory module plays a key role in both inter- and intra-species morphological diversification in the Brassicaceae leaves. I am excited to gain new insights into the mechanisms of environmental regulation of plant form and hope someday to comprehend the molecular determinants of biological forms and designs.