Allelopathy, Screening of allelopathy and identification of allelochemicals in action, utilization of allelopathy for aggriculture
Research members： Dr. Yoshiharu ＦUJII, Dr. Naoya WASANO
Research fields： Agricultural chemistry, Biological Science, Environmental conservation
Departments： Institute of Agriculture
Keywords： allelopathy
Web site：
Summary
My research activities are summarized as follows:
1) Developed of three bioassays for allelopathy that have been used by other scientists. These are the Plant Box method for root exudate, the Sandwich method for leaf leachates, and the Dishpack method for volatile chemicals. Using these methods, I have evaluated about 4,000 plant species for their allelopathy activity and found many allelopathically active plants, such as Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens), hariy vetch (Vicia villosa) and Thunberg spirea (Yuniyanagi) (Spiraea thunbergii).
2) By means of bioassay-guided isolation of many of allelochemicals from plants, discovering many important allelochemicals such as L-DOPA from Velvet bean. We have found cyanamide from hairy vetch (Journal of Chemical Ecology, 29, 275-284, 2003). This was remarkable, since this chemical was one of the first synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and herbicides. Cis-cinnamic acid and its derivatives were also isolated from Thunberg spirea.
3) Developed the concept of total allelopathic activity (Weed Science, 58, 258-264, 2010), which provides a realistic assessment of whether a natural phytotoxin might actually play a role in allelopathy.
4) Our group was one of the first to use transcriptome analysis to probe the mode of action of allelochemicals. Our work on mode of action of allelochemicals has resulted in significant new findings such as the discovery that cis-cinnamic acid affects plant gravitropism. We have just started a new National Project to understand the role of gravitropism in the modes of action of allelochemicals.
5) Our work has had practical benefits. For example, because of our studies and recommendations, hairy vetch is now the No. 2 cover crop in Japan.
Reference articles and patents
1) Hossein Mardani, Takayuki Sekine, Majid Azizi, Maryia Mishyna and Yoshiharu Fujii, Identification of safranal as the main allelochemical from Saffron (Crocus sativus)., Natural Product Communications, 10(5):775-777, 2015.
2) John S. Maninang, Shin Okazaki and Yoshiharu Fujii, Cyanamide phytotoxicity in soybean(Glycine max) seedlings involves aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibition and oxidative stress., Natural Product Communications, 10(5):743-746, 2015.
3) Maryia Mishyna, Nikolai Laman, Valery Prokhorov, John Solomon Maninang and Yoshiharu Fujii, Identification of octanal as plant growth inhibitory volatile compound released from Heracleum sosnowskyi fruit., Natural Product Communications, 10(5):771-774, 2015.
4) Naoya Wasano, Tomoko Takemura, Raihan Ismil, Baki Bakar, and Yoshiharu Fujii, Transcriptomic evaluation of plant growth inhibitory activity of Goniothalamin from the Malaysian medicinal plant Goniothalamus andersonii, Natural Product Communications, 10(5):725-727, 2015.
5) Ai Hasegawa, Tomoya Oyanagi, Reiko Minagawa, Yoshiharu Fujii, Hamako Sasamoto,An inverse relationship between allelopathic activity and salt tolerance in suspension cultures of three mangrove species, Sonneratia alba, S. caseolaris and S. ovata: Development of a bioassay method for allelopathy, the Protoplast Co-culture Method, Journal of Plant Research, 127(6):755-761, 2014.
6) Naoya Wasano, Mami Sugano, Keisuke Nishikawa, Katsuhiro Okuda, Mitsuru Shindo, So-Young Park, Syuntaro Hiradate, Tsunashi Kamo and Yoshiharu Fujii, Transcriptomic evaluation of the enhanced plant growth-inhibitory activity caused by derivatization of cis-cinnamic acid, Journal of Pesticide Science, 39:85-90, 2014.
7) Keisuke Nishikawa, Hiroshi Fukuda, Masato Abe, Kazunari Nakanishi, Yuta Tazawa, Chihiro Yamaguchi, Syuntaro Hiradate, Yoshiharu Fujii, Katsuhiro Okuda, and Mitsuru Shindo, Design, synthesis, and evaluation of congormationally constrained analoguses of cis-cinnamic acid as allelochemical like activity., Phytochemistry, 96, 223-234, 2013.
8) 藤井義晴（単著）2000 アレロパシー－他感物質の作用と利用－，農文協（自然と科学技術シリーズ）pp.1-231.
9) 藤井義晴（編集および分担執筆）1998 有田博之，藤井義晴（編著）, 畦畔と圃場に生かすグラウンドカバープランツ，農文協，pp.1-170
10) 藤井義晴（分担執筆） 2014 身近な雑草の生物学, 朝倉書店, pp.33-41.
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Contact
University Research Administration Center(URAC),
Tokyo University of Agriculture andTechnology
urac[at]ml.tuat.ac.jp
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