Yasuyuki Yamada
Nara Institute of Science and Technology
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Primary Section: 62, Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences Membership Type:
International Member
(elected 1999)
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Research Interests
From an early interest in plant tissue culture, my research expanded to the establishment of cell culture systems and their economic applications. I have sought to understand gene expression in plant cells, in particular in cultured cells that have high potentials for producing specific secondary products. During the isolation of such cells and the development of suitable cell culture systems, I became interested in the industrial production of secondary metabolites that have medicinal value. Using our developed culture systems, my colleagues and I have studied the functional expression of secondary metabolism in higher plants and the biosynthesis of desirable secondary metabolites (e.g., the isoquinoline and tropane alkaloids)-an undertaking that is extremely difficult, or impossible, using intact plants or plant-derived, non cellular systems. More recently, my research has been on the metabolic regulation that facilitates high production of the alkaloid scopolamine in transgenic plants.
