Vegetable Crop Science

Research on physiological and ecological issues of vegetable crops

Staff

	Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ken-ichiro YASUBA E-mail：ysbken (please add ＠okayama-u.ac.jp) Speciality： vegetable crop science
	Assist. Prof. Dr. Yoshiyuki TANAKA E-mail：yoshi-tanaka (please add ＠okayama-u.ac.jp) Speciality： vegetable crop science

Research Topics

Development of environmental controlling techniques for protected horticulture

Controlling the environment (air temperature, humidity, CO₂ concentration, light environment) in greenhouses is important for the production of vegetables. Recently, the plant factory, in which integrated environmental control is carried out, has been attracting attention, and it is necessary to develop new environmental controlling technique continuously. We are developing environmental controlling technique using a Ubiquitous Environmental Controlling System (UECS), and a method for the utilization of information and communication technology for horticultural production.

Analysis of agricultural traits in Capsicum genetic bio-resource and its application for breeding

Chili pepper (Capsicum genus) is a member of Solanaceae crops. Hot peppers are used as spice, and sweet peppers are consumed as vegetables. Both of them are important crops. Our group has collected various pepper accessions from all over the world, and possesses them as genetic bio-resources. Our bio-resources show diversity in pungency, fruits shapes, fruits color etc. We evaluate their agricultural traits to target their utilization for future pepper breeding. In addition, our main interest is variation of pungency in the Capsicum genus. We tried to identify the genetic factors controlling pungency.

Publications

・Establishment of an environmental measurement node using open source hardware. K. Yasuba, T. Hoshi, S. Kaneko, T. Higashide, H. Omori, A. Nakano, Agricultural Infrmation Research. 22. 247-255. 2013　(in Japanese with English abstract).
・The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Brassica oleracea and analysis of coexisting mitotypes. Y. Tanaka, M. Tsuda, K. Yasumoto, T. Terachi, H. Yamagishi. Curr. Genet. in press.
・Analysis of non-pungency, aroma, and origin of a Capsicum chinense cultivar from a Caribbean island. S.Koeda, K. Sato, K.Tomi, Y.Tanaka, R.Takisawa, M.Hosokawa, M.Doi, T.Nakazaki, A.Kitagjima. J. Japan. Soc. Hort. Sci. 83. 214-221. (2014)