Kofu Minami High School has been designated as a Super Science High School (SSH) by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) since 2004, and is entering its fourth iteration from 2017 onwards. The goal of SSH is to foster a mind for science and mathematics that looks to enrich the future of the world. We aim to further extend our students’ personalities and abilities and prepare them to interact with likeminded individuals all over the world as science leaders. Our activities include:
Science Forum : Where invited researchers and professors can give lectures on contemporary science.
SSH off-campus training : Where students can study state-of-the-art technology and techniques as well as performing hands-on field experiments.
Exploratory research : Wherein students develop a deep connection with a field of study that they are interested in. These research activities will be closely related to scientific events or societal problems.
Overseas training : Second graders who went through the selection trial will go to the U.S.A. for two weeks. They will visit advanced and famous research institutes and universities.
Features
Since the designation in the second term, we are working on SSH for all students. We will foster as many students in science, as well as cultivate views and perspectives of scientific things needed in society and presentation abilities and expressive abilities in English.
SSH to cultivate international sense
The theme of SSH of our school is “aiming to train science leaders with frontier spirit”. We are preparing programs to nurture talents with international senses, including study tours to the USA, opening science English class to express thoughts and opinions in English.
Establish a variety of school subjects
We have our own school subjects. In the first grade “Frontier Exploration Ⅰ”, second grad “Super Science Ⅱ ·Exploration “, both classes raise interests and curiosity in science through out-of-school training and lecture meetings and cultivates the practical ability of natural science by addressing task research. We also offer “SS courses” such as “SS mathematics” and “SS physics”, including advanced contents. Furthermore, even in ordinary subjects, teachers of each subject at our school will do classes on the theme of “science” in “the world of science”.
Reserach activities
Super Science High School Students Fair 2018
2018.9.12Kofu Minami High School
Mechanisms of Interspecific Incompatibility within Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae have evolved interspecific incompatibility that prevent hybridization between different species and thus maintain the identity of each species. Many stigmas of various Brassicaceae species were pollinated with reciprocal pollen to reveal the mechanism of recognition and pollen inhibition pathway.
Introduction
Little is known about interspecific incompatibility, preventing the fusion of gametes from different species. It is necessary to observe pollen tube growth in intra and interspecific pollination within Brassicaceae in order to elucidate the mechanism of recognition and the pollen inhibition pathway.
Theory and Experiment
We cultivated more than 100 plants of 17species within Brassicaceae. More than 1500 stigmas were pollinated in reciprocal crosses. We observed pollen tube growth by fluorescent microscope.
Results
Pollen tube elongation is observed in interspecific crosses between amphidiploid species and their ancestral species while inhibition is observed in other interspecific crosses.
We also observed pollination between various Brassica species and the self-compatible Brassica rapa cultiver ‘Yellow sarson(YS)’. YS stigma was compatible with many species.
Discussion
Pollinations between the two species possessing same ancestral genomes were compatible, while unrelated genomes were incompatible. We concluded that the Brassica stigma recognizes some key molecules of homogeneous pollen while in heterogeneous pollen, the lack of recognition resulted in rejection of the pollen. If key molecules of the pollen meet the stigma receptor of the same species, the pollen tube can be elongated.
B.rapa cultivar YS is self-compatible because of non-functional alleles of the M-locu protein kinase(MLPK) gene(6). Interspecific compatibility of YS implied the possibility of involvement of the MLPK protein in interspecific incompatibility reactions.
Conclusion
We revealed a part of interspecific incompatibility mechanisms. 1. It was speculated that the Brassica stigma recognizes the homogeneous pollen rather than the heterogeneous pollen, which led to rejection of the heterogeneous pollen. 2. The MLPK protein might be involved in interspecific incompatibility reactions. It is necessary to investigate the MLPK/mlpk hetero zygotic progeny genetically for proof of this hypothesis.
References
Murase et al., 2004. A Membrane-anchored protein kinase involved in Brassica self-incompatibility signaling. Science 303: 1516-1519
Kofu Minami High School has been designated as a Super Science High School (SSH) by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) since 2004, and is entering its fourth iteration from 2017 onwards. The goal of SSH is to foster a mind for science and mathematics that looks to enrich the future of the world. We aim to further extend our students’ personalities and abilities and prepare them to interact with likeminded individuals all over the world as science leaders. Our activities include:
Features
Since the designation in the second term, we are working on SSH for all students. We will foster as many students in science, as well as cultivate views and perspectives of scientific things needed in society and presentation abilities and expressive abilities in English.
SSH to cultivate international sense
The theme of SSH of our school is “aiming to train science leaders with frontier spirit”. We are preparing programs to nurture talents with international senses, including study tours to the USA, opening science English class to express thoughts and opinions in English.
Establish a variety of school subjects
We have our own school subjects. In the first grade “Frontier Exploration Ⅰ”, second grad “Super Science Ⅱ ·Exploration “, both classes raise interests and curiosity in science through out-of-school training and lecture meetings and cultivates the practical ability of natural science by addressing task research. We also offer “SS courses” such as “SS mathematics” and “SS physics”, including advanced contents. Furthermore, even in ordinary subjects, teachers of each subject at our school will do classes on the theme of “science” in “the world of science”.
Super Science High School Students Fair 2018
2018.9.12 Kofu Minami High School
Mechanisms of Interspecific Incompatibility within Brassicaceae
Chiaki Ichimura Yumi Shimura Soichiro Mochizuki Misato Muto
Abstract
Brassicaceae have evolved interspecific incompatibility that prevent hybridization between different species and thus maintain the identity of each species. Many stigmas of various Brassicaceae species were pollinated with reciprocal pollen to reveal the mechanism of recognition and pollen inhibition pathway.
Little is known about interspecific incompatibility, preventing the fusion of gametes from different species. It is necessary to observe pollen tube growth in intra and interspecific pollination within Brassicaceae in order to elucidate the mechanism of recognition and the pollen inhibition pathway.
We cultivated more than 100 plants of 17species within Brassicaceae. More than 1500 stigmas were pollinated in reciprocal crosses. We observed pollen tube growth by fluorescent microscope.
Pollen tube elongation is observed in interspecific crosses between amphidiploid species and their ancestral species while inhibition is observed in other interspecific crosses.
We also observed pollination between various Brassica species and the self-compatible Brassica rapa cultiver ‘Yellow sarson(YS)’. YS stigma was compatible with many species.
Pollinations between the two species possessing same ancestral genomes were compatible, while unrelated genomes were incompatible. We concluded that the Brassica stigma recognizes some key molecules of homogeneous pollen while in heterogeneous pollen, the lack of recognition resulted in rejection of the pollen. If key molecules of the pollen meet the stigma receptor of the same species, the pollen tube can be elongated.
B. rapa cultivar YS is self-compatible because of non-functional alleles of the M-locu protein kinase(MLPK) gene(6). Interspecific compatibility of YS implied the possibility of involvement of the MLPK protein in interspecific incompatibility reactions.
We revealed a part of interspecific incompatibility mechanisms. 1. It was speculated that the Brassica stigma recognizes the homogeneous pollen rather than the heterogeneous pollen, which led to rejection of the heterogeneous pollen. 2. The MLPK protein might be involved in interspecific incompatibility reactions. It is necessary to investigate the MLPK/mlpk hetero zygotic progeny genetically for proof of this hypothesis.
Brassicaceae interspecific-incompatibility self-incompatibility MLPK