Our research is focused on exploring the evolutionary mechanisms governing diverse metabolic pathways and their regulation in connection with lignin, a crucial component of plant cell walls that provides structural support to plants and facilitates water transportation.
Lignin biosynthesis emerged after the emergence of mosses. Ferns and gymnosperms, which diverged shortly thereafter, predominantly synthesizing G-type lignin, which consist primarily of G-type monomer. In contrast, eudicot plants additionally incorporate S-type monomer for the production of G/S-type lignin, and monocot plants further utilize acylated monomers and flavonoid tricin for the production of pCA-lignin and tricin-lignin. Our research focuses on unraveling the molecular mechanisms behind the evolutionarily diversification in lignin biosynthesis. We employ a combination of in silico analysis and various biochemical and chemical assays, guided by genomic resources from diverse plants. The findings obtained will be beneficial for providing the fundamental knowledge about engineering plant metabolism for the efficient production of plant-derived useful aromatics.
If you are interested in our research, please contact us!
Yuri Takeda-Kimura
email: ykimura[at]tds1.tr.yamagata-u.ac.jp (please change [at] to ＠)