The project meeting 2018 was held on 9-10/May/2018 at Sakata Hirata Hall, Nagoya University.

In this meeting, many outstanding achievements were presented from each research groups, and we deeply discussed with the keyword of "Innovative collaboration for Interdisciplinary research".

A total of 115 people participated for two days and it became a very fruiteful meeting.

　

　

Place: Town and Country Hotel, San Diego, USA

Date for your presentation: January 13th-17th, 2018

　

We attended the Plant & Animal Genome Congress (PAG) XXVI during Jan 13th~17th at San Diego. This chance was supported by International Activity Support Group of Scientific Research on Innovative Areas "The Birth of New Plant Species". We first express our sincere thanks to this support.

　

A graduate student of our lab, Haruka Maeda, and I took two invited talks and one poster presentation at the congress. We could meet to our friends worldwide, and had chances to discuss on the current progresses of each other, where some advanced (and attractive!!) technologies have been introduced. Only in Japan, it would be hard not only to receive the front lines of genome (or bioinformatics) technologies but to make good collaborations. The PAG, an annual meeting stably at San Diego, would be a good opportunity to grant them, especially for young scientists.

　

Takashi Akagi

Assis. Prof., Grad. Sch. Agric, Kyoto University

Haruka Maeda

Graduated Student, Grad. Sch. Agric, Kyoto University

　

Place: Genome Center, University of California Davis, USA

Dates: January 10th-12th, 2018

　

We have kept good connections with Prof. Luca Comai and Dr. Isabelle M. Henry, Genome Center at UC Davis, since my (Takashi's) stay on his lab in 2012-2014. Here, we could have a chance to visit there to discuss on our collaborative projects, on persimmon genomes or sex determination systems etc., which was supported by International Activity Support Group of Scientific Research on Innovative Areas "The Birth of New Plant Species".

　

Although the discussions about actual collaborative topics or on new technologies helped us a lot as a matter of course, casual talks on miscellaneous, like in dinner with them, also encouraged us to study powerfully. We'll take good care of this connection with them from now on too.

　

Takashi Akagi

Assis. Prof., Grad. Sch. Agric, Kyoto University

Haruka Maeda

Graduated Student, Grad. Sch. Agric, Kyoto University

I, Kaoru Tonosaki (JSPS fellow) is studying abroad to the laboratory of professor Luca Comai in University of California, Davis, from October 19th in 2017.

In Comai Lab, I aim to acquire a skill of bioinformatics analysis, and be going to collaborative work on the research about the species barrier in rice endosperm.

　

This trip was supported by "International Activity Support Group" of Scientific Research in Innovative Areas "the Birth of New Plant Species".

I would like to express my sincere gratitude for this support.

　

Kaoru Tonosaki

JSPS research fellow

KIBR, Yokohama City University

Place: Humanities and Social Sciences Building, Academia Sinica, Taopei, Taiwan

Date for your presentation: 4^th-5^th, Nov, 2017

　

I attended the joint meeting of Taiwan-Japan Plant Biology 2017(TJPB2017) on November 3rd~5th in Taipei. This trip was supported by International Activity Support Group of Scientific Research on Innovative Areas "The Birth of New Plant Species". Initially, I'd like to appreciate this support.

　

At the meeting, we could really enjoy many exciting talks by six keynotes' and fifteen sessions' speakers. During the break time, we had fruitful discussions with some speakers. They gave me many significant comments. It's also helpful for my research. The title of my presentation was 'Synergid cell controls the destination of sperm cell discharge'. In the poster session, I explained it to three Taiwanese scientists and two Japanese students. They asked me questions and gave me nice suggestions to improve our project. On the last day, I got an opportunity to introduce our work in the five minutes' short talk part of the Reproductive growth, Flowering session. It was very valuable experience for me. I believe this helps to push forward my research.

　

　

Daichi Susaki

KIBR, Yokohama City University