Professor Mikio Nakazono is a renowned expert in root trait that are relevant to soil waterlogging. He has worked extensively with constitutive and inducible aerenchyma formation in a range of crop species as well as the barrier to radial oxygen loss using model species such as rice, maize and teosinte.
During our visits to Nagoya University, we have recently worked with ROL barrier formation in the lateral roots of teosinte (Zea nicaraguensis), a wild relative to maize, and an exciting maize introgression line with a QTL from teosinte that is coding for ROL barrier formation.
Our collaboration is ongoing although the Corona pandemic made it impossible to conduct the planned research visit in 2020.
