成果の概要

I gave a lecture at the departments of Plant Breeding and Tropical Agriculture of Hohenheim University. In addition, I met with Professors of Bioinformatics, Plant Nutrition and with the editor in chief of the journal Theoretical and Applied Genetics (TAG) of which I am a member of the editorial board.
At Forschungszentrum Juelich (FZJ) my main task was to develop a 3-D root growth model for rice with a FZJ counterpart scientist. The basic model now allows us to visualize root development over time in daily intervals. We optimized model input parameters to more closely mimic root growth patterns observed in pot and field parameters. In addition, we jointly analyzed differences in growth under P deficiency of transgenic lines overexpressing a cell-wall related gene, which had been developed based on constructs made by a former JSPS fellow now working at FZJ.
At Bonn University I had organized a mini-workshop on iron toxicity in rice. Participants were two professors from Bonn, a professor from Hohenheim and one from Cranfield University, UK. We discussed the state of present knowledge on Fe toxicity and which aspects of the stress should be studied in more detail in the field in Madagascar and West-Africa.