Takaaki Yonekura

聖光アカデミアの会にて講演。取り留めのない話になってしまった気もするが、僕のやってる研究はそういうもんだ。

Free-to-read version here👇 rdcu.be/ey7yj

9/9
Huge thanks to all collaborators! Special thanks to Prof. Hidehiro Fukaki (Kobe Univ.) — his lab's imaging setup was essential. And to Dr. Takaaki Yonekura @monera-kingdom.bsky.social, a former senior whose modeling directly supported our conclusions.

8/n
This work is the culmination of 7.5 years of research, starting from my undergraduate days.
Deep thanks to my supervisor Prof. Yuki Kondo @ykondolab.bsky.social for unwavering support.

7/n
This means:
💡 Cytokinin is not just a generic growth signal —
It’s a switch that creates stem cells specifically for radial growth.

6/n
So what does cytokinin actually do during this peak?
It induces and activates stem cells.
Before the CRM, cells can’t directly differentiate to xylem or self-renew. After the CRM, they gain both abilities.

5/n
In Arabidopsis roots, cytokinin response imaging revealed something surprising:
A clear but transient peak of cytokinin signaling — which we called the cytokinin response maximum (CRM) — appears.
2–3 days later, radial growth begins.

4/n
Using a vascular cell induction system called VISUAL, combined with single-cell transcriptomics and luminescence imaging, we found something else:
Cytokinin doesn't just boost division — it promotes the transition of dormant procambial cells into active cambial stem cells.

3/n
Cytokinin was already known to be important for radial growth, but mostly thought to just promote cell division.
We questioned this assumption.

2/n
In many plants like trees, bifacial cambial stem cells drive radial growth by dividing actively.
Before that, they exist as inactive procambial cells — waiting in a dormant state.

A cytokinin response maximum induces and activates bifacial stem cells for radial growth - Nature Plants This study details how plants initiate radial growth, during which a transient cytokinin response maximum transforms dormant procambial cells into bifacial stem cells, offering a basis for post-embryo...

1/n
What triggers plants to start growing thicker (radial growth)?
We discovered that a transient cytokinin response maximum acts as a switch to initiate this process in roots.
So proud to share the work I started as an undergrad, now in Nature Plants! 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We held a closed meeting in Atami, enjoyed the wonderful hot springs, and had a great time. I enjoyed discussing many studies and also talking about my recent theoretical work.

Made it to #ACMB2025 #JSMB2025, but instead of the excursion, I’m frantically grading reports of plant morphology 📚

今日は一日中、なかなか珍しい来客の多い日である。

ちょうど15年ぶりぐらいの柏キャンパス

Now released a software used in our paper to analyze root growth from TrackMate data!
You can analyze data of root tip nuclei easily via a simple GUI.
Paper: https://academic.oup.com/pcp/article/64/11/1262/7323573
GitHub: https://github.com/TakaakiYonekura/RootDataAnalysis

来月末、私費で伺う予定の研究集会に際してのホテルを予約。楽しみである。

クロスポストテスト

研究についての投稿は、2025年度より少しずつこちらに軸足を置いていこうと思っています。