July 2015
INTRODUCTION TO THE DEPARTMENT
OF
CELL AND SYSTEMS BIOLOGY (CSB),
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Keiko Yoshioka, PhD
University of Toronto
Cell and Systems Biology
TORONTO IS LOCATED AT ONTARIO LAKE
From top left: Downtown Toronto featuring the CN Tower and Financial District from the Toronto Harbour, City Hall, the Ontario Legislative Building, Casa Loma, Prince Edward Viaduct, and the Scarborough Bluffs.
Population 2,615,060 in 2011.
Niagara Falls
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO‐ESTABLISHED IN 1827 • It is recognized as a global leader in research and teaching.
• University of Toronto ranks highly in global rankings. According to the 2015 U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Ranking, it is ranked 14th overall, 24th by the 2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities.
• It has six Nobel Prize‐winning graduates, the highest number of any Canadian university University of Toronto St. George Campus
University of Toronto has three campuses
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO IS
CANADA'S LARGEST UNIVERSITY
• 68,114 undergraduate students, 16,442 graduate students and 13,239 faculty and staff and 422,000 alumni • 75 PhD programs • It has over 10,000 international students, over 15 per cent of our student population
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO IS CANADA'S LARGEST
UNIVERSITY
Students are coming from all over the world
DEPARTMENT OF CELL AND SYSTEMS BIOLOGY (CSB)
• University of Toronto has almost 100 departments in three campuses.
• The Department of Cell & Systems Biology (CSB) was established in July of 2006 to advance research and teaching in some of the most dynamic and vital areas of biological research based on two pre‐existing departments, the Zoology and Botany Departments .
DEPARTMENT OF CELL AND SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
• CSB embraces new methodologies and state‐of‐the art technologies. • Its researchers use a wide range of cutting‐edge tools to study the fundamental biological mechanisms that govern interactions at all levels of complexity, ranging from molecules to communities. DEPARTMENT OF CELL AND SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
*CAGEF maintains a variety of state‐of‐the‐art equipment allowing us to provide a range of services for:
Genomics, Proteomics, Transcriptomics, Flow Cytometry, Bio‐Analytic Resource
DEPARTMENT OF CELL AND SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
• CSB embraces new methodologies and state‐of‐the art technologies. Its researchers use a wide range of cutting‐edge tools to study the fundamental biological mechanisms that govern interactions at all levels of complexity, ranging from molecules to communities. DEPARTMENT OF CELL AND SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
YOSHIOKA LAB SINCE 2004
OUR RESEARCH FOCUS:

Signal Transduction in Plant Stress Responses and Plant‐
Microbe Interactions ‐ Plant Pathogen Resistance (oomycete, fungal, bacterial and viruses)
‐ Environmental Stress Resistance (cold/heat, water/drought)
‐ Crosstalk between pathogen resistance (biotic) and
environmental (abiotic) stress resistance
‐ Ion stress resistance, senescence
ON‐GOING PROJECTS IN THE YOSHIOKA LAB
Signal transduction in plant immunity and Plant‐Microbe Interactions‐ We use Genetics, Molecular biological technics, Proteomics approaches, Bioinformatics approaches, Cell Biological and Biochemical analyses.
1. Involvement of Cyclic Nucleotide Gated Ion Channels in Plant Immunity •
Identification of new signalling components using suppressor screens
•
Structure‐function analysis
2. TTM (triphosphate tunnel metalloenzyme) super family as Stress responsive components ‐ Genome Canada funding and collaboration with Vineland Research Center and Agriculture Canada 3. Plant Hormonal Crosstalk during stress responses‐ Crosstalk of salicylic acid, ABA and Auxin 4. Bacterial Type III Effectors 5. Coconut‐ Phytoplasma Interaction. ON‐GOING PROJECTS IN THE YOSHIOKA LAB‐ AN EXAMPLE
FORWARD GENETICS APPROACH

Generating pathogen resistant crops using TTM (the triphosphate tunnel metalloenzyme) genes
Our reverse genetics approach discovered that Arabidopsis TTM genes are involved in pathogen resistance and senescence.
TTM2 knockout mutant shows enhanced resistance to pathogens Hypersensitive response
Wild type ttm2 mutant
Infected
Cotyledons
Wt
Day 7
Systemic
True leaves
TTM1 knockout mutant shows delayed senescence Day 0

Red arrow: hyphae
ttm1‐1 ttm1‐1
+TTM1
ON‐GOING PROJECTS IN THE YOSHIOKA LAB‐ AN EXAMPLE

Generating pathogen resistant crops using TTM ( triphosphate tunnel metalloenzyme) genes
 Generating the same pathogen resistant mutants in tomato by knockout technology.
OUR ROLE IN THE COCONUT LETHAL
YELLOW DISEASE PROJECT

Sequencing of the Phytoplasma genome 
Sequencing of coconut genome from resistant and susceptible cultivars.

Transcriptomic analysis of coconuts upon phytoplasma infection to identify disease marker genes for diagnostic purposes as well as genes that may contributes to resistance.

Analysis of carrier insects.

Establishment of artificial infection method