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Molecular Breeding Lab
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The lab creates new natural compounds by discovering unknown enzymes hidden in microbial genes.
AboutAbout the lab
Aiming to understand the astonishingly diverse capabilities of microorganisms.
The Molecular Breeding Lab conducts research under the keywords "elucidating and exploring microbial functions."
The lab discovers unknown functions encoded in microbial genes and uncovers the basic principles behind them.
It aims to apply this work to creating new useful substances and to understanding the complex interactions between organisms.
Its research rests on two pillars: studies of enzymes that produce natural compounds, and studies of how microorganisms adapt to stress.
Key terms
- Metagenome
- A collective set of genes extracted from the organisms in an environment such as soil or water. It also includes genes from microorganisms that cannot be cultured.
- Synthetic biology
- An approach to research in which an organism's genes are recombined and redesigned so that the organism produces a desired substance.
- Ribonuclease
- An enzyme that cuts and degrades RNA. It plays diverse roles in a wide range of organisms.
NewsLab news
A master's student won an Excellent Poster Award at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Actinomycetes Japan
Paper by alumni and colleagues published in Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry (BBB)
Discovery of a new enzyme system that produces the complex fatty acid side chains of antibiotics
Paper by alumni and colleagues published in PLOS Computational Biology
A master's student won a Poster Award at the Global Innovation Workshop
ResearchResearch themes
The lab discovers the functions of unknown enzymes hidden in microbial genomes and elucidates the principles of their catalysis at the molecular level. It also investigates the mechanisms that control the expression of biosynthetic genes, with the aim of building a foundation for producing new useful natural compounds.
*Illustrative imageEnzymes that produce natural compounds, and new substances
The lab mines untapped resources such as metagenomes to uncover new genes that produce bioactive compounds. It studies how these enzymes work in detail, aiming to build systems that produce useful substances using synthetic biology approaches.
*Illustrative imageRNA-degrading enzymes and stress adaptation
The lab studies novel ribonuclease-mediated stress adaptation mechanisms, one of the ways microorganisms counter environmental stress, and explores the common principles underlying them.
*Illustrative imageAction of bioactive compounds and self-resistance
The lab works to elucidate how bioactive compounds act, and the mechanisms of "self-resistance," by which the microorganisms that produce them avoid being affected by them.
*Illustrative imageCompound production through translational regulation
The lab is developing new methods of compound production based on regulating translation, the process of making proteins from genes.
MembersFaculty
The Molecular Breeding Lab's members include faculty, academic specialists, project researchers, administrative assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorTomohisa KuzuyamaPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorTetsuhiro OgawaPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorTomohiro NoguchiPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “20241028-R9HMNF-CB-001 Leafy ground” usfs_Eastern_Region / Public domain (cropped)
- Enzymes that produce natural compounds, and new substances: “Streptomyces gardneri strain ChNPU F3” Ткачук Наталія Василівна / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- RNA-degrading enzymes and stress adaptation: “PDB 2k11 EBI” Jawahar Swaminathan and MSD staff at the European Bioinformatics Institute / Public domain (cropped)
- Action of bioactive compounds and self-resistance: “Antibiotic disk diffusion” Microrao / Public domain (cropped)
- Compound production through translational regulation: “Ribosome (NIH BioArt )” Courtesy of NIAID Ryan Kissinger / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (生物制御科学研究室): “3-day-old buckwheat sprouts” V.Boldychev / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (植物分子生理学研究室): “2017 Kennebec, SD No Till Corn” USDA NRCS South Dakota / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (有機化学研究室): “Coloured column chromatography ( )” Максим Фомич / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (生物有機化学研究室): “Malcolmia littorea kz06” Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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