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Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Lab
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The lab investigates how plants take up nutrients and put them to use.
AboutAbout the lab
Supporting food and the environment through plant nutrition.
The Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Lab studies how plants absorb, transport, and use nutrients.
To support future food production while reducing environmental impact, the lab conducts research on plant nutrition.
Alongside basic research that uncovers these mechanisms, the lab aims to develop crops that grow with less fertilizer and plants that help protect the environment.
Lab visits are accepted at any time.
Key terms
- Essential element
- An element indispensable for plant growth. Essential elements include nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as boron.
- Transporter
- A protein in the cell membrane that moves specific substances into and out of the cell.
- Ribosome
- A structure inside the cell that makes proteins based on the information in genes.
NewsLab news
Developed iron-rich rice in joint research with Tokyo University of Agriculture and others
Identified a gene essential for roots to bend toward nutrient-rich areas
The lab took part in the event "Take a Peek into UTokyo Labs!"
A JSPS International Research Fellow received the Encouragement Award of the Japanese Society of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
Discovered a new mechanism in which mRNA undergoing degradation represses transcription
ResearchResearch themes
The lab studies how plants absorb, transport, and use nutrients, and how these processes are regulated. Based on these findings, it aims to develop crops that grow with less fertilizer and plants that help protect the environment.
*Illustrative imageTransporters that take up nutrients
Plants absorb inorganic nutrients from the soil through transporters. Using Arabidopsis and rice, the lab identifies nutrient transporters and investigates where and how they function.
*Illustrative imageHow plants respond to changes in nutrition
Plants sense nutrient deficiency and have mechanisms to absorb and use nutrients efficiently. The lab studies how the amount of transporters is regulated according to nutrient levels, and how nutrient sensing works through ribosomes.
*Illustrative imagePlants tolerant of nutrient stress
The lab searches for genes that can be used to create plants that grow with less fertilizer. For boron, an essential element, it has succeeded in creating plants tolerant of both deficiency and excess by enhancing transporter function.
*Illustrative imageResponses to toxic elements
The lab studies the transport of toxic elements in soil and the mechanisms that allow plants to tolerate them. It identified a transporter that carries cadmium into rice grains, and found that suppressing its function reduces the cadmium content of the rice.
MembersFaculty
The Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Lab consists of faculty members, JSPS Research Fellows, Project Researchers, technical assistants, administrative assistants, specialized agricultural support staff, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and research students.As of 2026
- ProfessorToru FujiwaraPublications ↗
- Associate ProfessorKamiya TakehiroPublications ↗
- Project Lecturer山崎 清志
- Assistant ProfessorTakehiro ItoPublications ↗
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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: “Roots of a hydroponically-grown plant” Banana patrol / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Transporters that take up nutrients: “Aquaporin-Sideview” Vossman / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- How plants respond to changes in nutrition: “My little Garden” Martin Stübler / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Plants tolerant of nutrient stress: “Boron toxicity ( )” Malcolm Manners from Lakeland FL, USA / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Responses to toxic elements: “Tricolor brown rice” Fumikas Sagisavas / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Pedosphere Science Lab): “Soil profile 0-125cm” Mclund / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Plant Functional Engineering Lab): “Arabidopsis thaliana sl13” Stefan.lefnaer / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Radiation Plant Physiology Lab): “Soybean Plants in the Field ( )” United Soybean Board / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Immune Regulation Lab): “Cross-section histology of small intestinal villi of the terminal ileum” Mikael Häggström, M.D. / CC0 (cropped)
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