Genetics and Breeding Section

Yoichi HONDA

 PhD,Professor, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University

 Title:Molecular genetic approaches beyond the post-genomic era

Abstract: Nowadays, genome sequence information is available in plenty of species and post genomic

analyses are popular in variety of fungi. Along this movement, many mushroom scientists have come to

 face too much information or factors related to a phenomenon of their interest. It even seems that post 

genomics has changed the situation more difficult to eliminate unnecessary factors and elucidate

 fundamental mechanism for each physiological phenomenon. In this lecture, recent trials in our group to

 accelerate mushroom science beyond the post-genomic era using improved molecular genetic tools will

 be introduced. They include development of research tools both in forward and reverse genetics; a 

transfection system and its utilization in gene expression signal analyses in the selective white rot fungus

 Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, multiple gene targeting system in Pleurotus ostreatus and Coprinopsis 

cinerea, which can be used for knock-out of genes of interest or knock-in of reporter constructs on the 

chromosome, and efficient forward genetics combined with genome information to identify new genes 

responsible for lignin degradation in P. ostreatus. Furthermore, our recent results in on-going genome 

editing experiments with CRISPR/Cas9 will be reported. These approaches will contribute to elucidate 

molecular mechanisms for unique processes, such as fruitbody development or wood biomass 

degradation. Moreover, they will be essential approaches to design order-made mushrooms from existing

 well-breed cultivars, which are free of heterogeneous DNA and more acceptable for the consumers and 

societies.

Introduction：

Yoichi Honda studied agricultural chemistry from 1983 to 1987 at Kyoto University (Japan) and went to 

master and doctor courses under supervision of Prof. Tohru Komano. In 1992, he has got Ph.D degree 

and the title of dissertation is “Initiation mechanism of DNA replication in broad host-range plasmid 

RSF1010”, to which a prize for young scientist was awarded from Inoue foundation. After a JSPS (Japan

 Society of Promotion of Science) Post-Doc fellow for one year, in 1993, he has got a position of Assistant

 Professor at Wood Research Institute (WRI), Kyoto University and started to work on wood rot fungi 

including Pleurotus ostreatus in a laboratory of Prof. Masaki Kuwahara, who found manganese peroxidase

 from Phanerochaete chrysosoporium. He set sail for developing a practical transformation system for 

P. ostreatus, and a self-cloning drug-resistant maker, cbxR, has been developed in his group. In 1998, 

he went to the United Kingdom in order to study with Prof. Dr. Lorna Casselton genetic transformation 

and mating type genes of the mushroom Coprinopsis cinerea at the University of Oxford (Department of 

Plant Sciences) as a JSPS-The Royal Society Research Fellow for one year. After coming back from UK,

 his research group published papers on molecular breeding, overexpression and protein engineering of

 ligninolytic enzymes, to which prizes for encouragement were awarded from Hokuto Research Foundation

 (2000), and Japan Society of Mushroom Science and Biotechnology (2002). In 2002, he became 

Associate Professor at WRI, Kyoto University and continued molecular genetic studies on ligninolytic 

system in P. ostreatus. In 2012, he moved to Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University to be 

Professor in Laboratory of Forest Biochemistry, from then his research topics have extended to wider 

fields in basic and applied sciences of mushrooms. In 2017, he was awarded a prize from Memorial 

Founding Society of Dr. Kisaku Mori, and became a Guest Professor at Institute of Edible Fungi, Shanghai

 Academy of Agricultural Sciences (China). In 2018, he started to organize an international consortium 

on mushroom genetics, with a support by SPIRITS (Supporting Program for Interaction-based Initiative 

Team Studies) program from Kyoto University and held a satellite workshop at 9ICMBMP, Shanghai.