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Ikeda Lab
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The lab reads the diversity of plants from the evolutionary history preserved in their genomes.
AboutAbout the lab
Reading plant diversity through the history recorded in genomes
The Ikeda Lab unravels the evolutionary history preserved in genomes to clarify how plants interact with their environments.
Its goal is to understand the mechanisms by which biodiversity has been generated.
Centered on fieldwork, the lab analyzes evolutionary dynamics using DNA sequences and genomic data.
It also combines this with approaches that grow plants in the laboratory and study them physiologically and genetically.
Key terms
- adaptive evolution
- The process by which organisms change their traits over generations to suit the environment where they live
- phylogeography
- A field that compares genetic differences on a map to trace how the distributions of organisms have spread
- photoreceptor
- A protein that receives light and switches on functions in plants
NewsLab news
A paper by a doctoral student was published in Annals of Botany
A co-authored review article was published
A paper by a doctoral student was published in the Journal of Plant Research
A doctoral student received an Oral Presentation Award at the Japanese Society for Plant Systematics
A co-authored paper was published in American Journal of Botany
ResearchResearch themes
The lab studies the mechanisms by which plants have adapted to and diversified across the Earth's varied environments. It investigates which physiological functions have changed through adaptive evolution and by what molecular mechanisms they are regulated, while also tracing, through genes, how plant distributions have shifted with climate change.
*Illustrative imageHow plants sense light, and adaptive evolution
Plant photoreceptors are central to the physiological processes that allow plants to live in adaptation to their surroundings. The lab aims to clarify how natural variation in the photoreceptor phytochrome changes physiological function, using methods from molecular evolution, physiology, and genetics.
*Illustrative imagePlants shared by the Arctic and Japan
Alpine plants growing on the high mountains of the Japanese archipelago have very wide distributions across the cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The lab investigates whether regional adaptations arise from genetic variation, and which genes' variants are involved, through fieldwork abroad and research in phylogeography and population genomics.
*Illustrative imageOrigins of Japan's alpine plants
In East Asia, which was not covered by continental ice sheets during the Ice Age, organisms that moved north and south with climate cooling and warming have formed communities. The lab aims to clarify, through phylogeographic research, how alpine plant communities have changed over time.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Ikeda Lab consist of faculty and doctoral students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorIkeda HajimePublications ↗
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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: “Alpine plants and rocks on Mount Shirouma” Alpsdake / CC0 (cropped)
- How plants sense light, and adaptive evolution: “Keimlinge Arabidopsis D-light” Mathias Zeidler, University of Giessen, Germany / CC0 (cropped)
- Plants shared by the Arctic and Japan: “Kalmia procumbens bush upernavik” Kim Hansen / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Origins of Japan's alpine plants: “Tundra coastal vegetation Alaska” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Dobata Lab): “Pristomyrmex punctatus ( )” harum.koh from Kobe city, Japan / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Aoki Lab): “Clover root nodules” Bwiltz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Komiya Lab): “Nuvvuagittuq belt rocks” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Nagata Lab): “Oil palm plantation in Mersing District” Wee Hong / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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