LAB LOGA page on LabLog, a review site (not the lab's official page)
Sugimoto Lab (Plant Metabolisms-Herbivore Interaction Laboratory)
Machine-translated · View original
The lab uncovers how plants and the animals that eat them interact, starting from plant scent.
AboutAbout the lab
Plant scents that shape the eater–eaten relationship
The Sugimoto Lab studies the eater–eaten relationship between plants and the animals that eat them (herbivores).
It focuses in particular on whether the invisible volatile compounds (scents) that plants emit repel or attract herbivores.
Combining behavioral experiments with herbivores and chemical analysis of plant components, the lab investigates the underlying mechanisms down to the molecular level.
The findings are expected to contribute to developing pest management technologies that use less pesticide.
Key terms
- Volatile compounds
- Compounds that turn into gas at room temperature and spread through the air. They are the source of plant scents.
- Glycosylation
- Attaching a sugar to a compound to convert it into a different compound. It is one way plants store the scent components they take in.
- Trichome
- A fine hair growing on the surface of a plant's leaves or stems. Some have cells at the tip that store defensive compounds.
ResearchResearch themes
The lab studies the roles that the diverse metabolites plants produce, especially volatile compounds (scents), play in their relationships with the animals that eat them. It pursues two directions: elucidating how plants defend themselves, and improving the components of fruit by altering plant metabolism.
*Illustrative imageHow plants perceive scents
Plants neighboring a plant damaged by herbivores receive the scents it emits and use them for their own defense. Focusing on the phenomenon in which plants glycosylate the scent components they take in and store them, the lab is searching for the mechanism (receptors) by which plants, which have no nose, sense scents.
*Illustrative imageHow scents are stored and released
At the tips of the hairs (trichomes) on leaf surfaces are cells that store defensive compounds and release them all at once when an insect touches them. The lab uses genetic approaches to investigate the molecular mechanisms that allow these cells to accumulate large amounts of such compounds.
*Illustrative imageFruit components and insect damage
Tomato fruits are damaged by moth larvae that feed on them. Using lines bred by crossing a cultivated tomato with a closely related wild species, the lab aims to identify the components that fruit-feeding insects dislike.
*Illustrative imageChanging fruit components for new flavors
The lab tests whether lines with altered insect preferences also change human preferences. It is also taking on the challenge of producing fruits with different components through genetic modification and genome editing.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Sugimoto Lab are faculty, who conduct research with collaborators at other universities.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorSugimoto KoichiPublications ↗
VoicesStudent voices
Ratings and reviews reflect the experiences of individual current or former students, not the lab's official views. Whether a lab has reviews, or how many, says nothing about the lab itself.
Students who take part in an interview may receive a thank-you gift worth ¥1,000, regardless of what they say.
Student ratings (0 students)
--
--
--
--
--
--
Student voices answer questions like these
- What's great about this lab?
- What did you learn after joining?
- What's the vibe, and what is the professor like?
- Who is this lab for?
- Where do graduates go?
Your experience can help younger students choose their lab. Your name won't be shown.
Write a lab reviewAnonymous · Your draft is saved if you stopRelatedLabs similar to Sugimoto Lab (Plant Metabolisms-Herbivore Interaction Laboratory)
Guo Lab (Field Phenomics Lab)Faculty of Agriculture, Major in Landscape Ecology and PlanningAgricultural informatics, plant phenotyping, machine learnin…
Institute for Sustainable Agro-ecosystem ServicesFaculty of Agriculture, Major in Landscape Ecology and PlanningInvestigating the relationship between agriculture and ecosy…
Conservation Ecology LabFaculty of Agriculture, Major in Landscape Ecology and PlanningImpacts of human activities on ecosystems and biodiversity, …
Landscape Ecology and Planning LabFaculty of Agriculture, Major in Landscape Ecology and PlanningFrom the perspectives of ecology and planning, aiming to res…The information on this page is compiled by the LabLog team from the lab's public information and interviews. For corrections or removal requests, please contact LabLog, not the lab.
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: “Badamia exclamationis caterpillar eating Terminalia catappa leaf. Dededo, Guam” Halenhardy / CC0 (cropped)
- How plants perceive scents: “Brown caterpillar eating a leaf at night” Kyu3a / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How scents are stored and released: “Trichome tomato” TomRPoole / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Fruit components and insect damage: “Caterpillar in tomato” Quatar / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Changing fruit components for new flavors: “Tomatoes, heirloom - Massachusetts” Daderot / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Guo Lab (Field Phenomics Lab)): “Dülmen, Kirchspiel, Dernekamp, Getreidefeld” Dietmar Rabich / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Institute for Sustainable Agro-ecosystem Services): “Midoricho, Nishitokyo, University of Tokyo Tanashi Campus 20250615” Mikagekawase / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Conservation Ecology Lab): “Satoyama, utilize plant layer” Namazu-tron / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Landscape Ecology and Planning Lab): “Shiroyone Senmaida 200906” Totti / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
About LabLog
LabLog is a lab review app for students only. Student members at each university interview students in labs and publish what they say. Student voices can only be read by students who sign up with a university email address. Operated by bestiee Inc.
Learn more about LabLog ↗Search engines and AI may reference the basic lab info and rating summaries on this page and the description of LabLog. Student voices are for student members only. Automated collection by programs (scraping, or input to or training of AI) is prohibited under Article 8 of the Terms of Service. If you need data for research or analysis, please contact us.