The Golgi apparatus is a key station of glycosylation and membrane traffic. It consists of stacked cisternae in most eukaryotes. However, the mechanisms how the Golgi stacks are formed and maintained are still obscure. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana provides a nice system to observe Golgi structures by light microscopy, because the Golgi in A. thaliana is in the form of mini-stacks that are distributed throughout the cytoplasm. To obtain a clue to understand the molecular basis of Golgi morphology, we took a forward-genetic approach to isolate A. thaliana mutants that show abnormal structures of the Golgi under a confocal microscope. In the present report, we describe characterization of one of such mutants, named #46-3. The #46-3 mutant showed pleiotropic Golgi phenotypes. The Golgi size was in majority smaller than the wild type, but varied from very small ones, sometimes without clear association of cis and trans cisternae, to abnormally large ones under a confocal microscope.At the ultrastructual level by electron microscopy, queer-shaped large Golgi stacks were occasionally observed. By positional mapping, genome sequencing, and complementation and allelism tests, we linked the mutant phenotype to the missense mutation D374N in the NSF gene, encoding the N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor (NSF), a key component of membrane fusion. This residue is near the ATP-binding site of NSF, which is very well conserved in eukaryotes, suggesting that the biochemical function of NSF is important for maintaining the normal morphology of the Golgi.3

Societies across the world face the need to increase the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) personnel who could resolve issues concerning sustainability. The body of scholarly literature on STEM education has grown significantly since the beginning of the 21st century. STEAM education incorporates arts with STEM subjects. This pedagogical strategy is increasingly adopted in formal/informal education settings to foster scientific thinking and creativity through multisensory artistic activities. Science museums and centers house discrete items such as multi-touch tabletops that allow visitors to handle objects and engage in experiential activities. This study postulates that science university museums can contribute to STEAM education. It illustrates the effectiveness of object-based learning (OBL) in STEAM education imparted through original artwork housed in science university museums. This study's application of OBL at university museums establishes OBL within cross-disciplinarySTEAM-based educational systems in Japan through the use of original artwork such as sericulture ukiyo-e. Students majoring in agriculture or technology participated in the workshop designed for this study, directly engaged with discrete multisensory sericulture ukiyo-e, and were encouraged to think from diverse perspectives. Finally, the studentsdebated the sericulture ukiyo-e and organized an exhibition. This study concludes that the academic value of STEAM education is enhanced through the technique of fostering problem-solving in students using interactions with and active discussions about artwork collections and objects.

Individuals visiting science museums and centers generally seek to cultivate their scientific thinking and, thanks to advanced technologies in the beginning of the 21st century, can also enjoy multisensory artistic experiences. Creating such an immersive experience in museums has been part of a national strategy to increase the number of future Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) personnel, fields that have historically had greater difficulty in attracting students.