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Suzuki Lab
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A lab that uses insects to solve the mystery of how an organism becomes male or female.
AboutAbout the lab
The mysteries of sex, explored through three S perspectives
The Suzuki Lab studies how males and females are determined in living organisms.
The lab approaches the phenomena of sex from the perspective of three S's: the sex-determining system (System), symbiotic bacteria (Symbiont), and species (Species).
A distinguishing feature of the lab is its broad perspective, spanning the molecular level to the ecological level.
Using insects such as the spongy moth and the silkworm, the lab aims to extend research on sex determination into the field of ecology.
Key terms
- Sex determination
- The mechanism that determines whether an organism becomes male or female
- Symbiotic bacteria
- Bacteria that live inside other organisms. Some of them affect the sex of their host
- Speciation reversal
- A phenomenon in which two species that once diverged interbreed repeatedly and merge back into a single species
NewsLab news
A doctoral student received the Best Oral Presentation Award at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Evolutionary Studies
A paper examining infection of the Ezo spongy moth by the symbiotic bacterium Spiroplasma was published in the journal Symbiosis
A master's student received the Best Student Presentation Award at the Sericulture and Insect Functional Utilization Conference
A master's student received the Dean's Award of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences
ResearchResearch themes
Sex means male and female and is essential to sexual reproduction, so it is deeply connected to biological phenomena at every scale, from the micro to the macro. The lab unravels the mysteries of sex from the perspective of three S's: System (mechanism), Symbiont (symbiotic bacteria), and Species.
*Illustrative imageSex-Determining Systems (System)
The action of a single gene can produce differences between males and females in everything from appearance to lifespan and behavior. Through research on the silkworm, the lab has discovered factors that are important for sex determination. It is also investigating how new sex-determining mechanisms arise in the spongy moth, whose type of sex-determining gene differs among subspecies and regions.
*Illustrative imageSymbiotic Bacteria and Sex (Symbiont)
Symbiotic bacteria are known in some cases to hijack the host's sex-determining mechanism and skew the sex ratio. Focusing on Spiroplasma, a bacterium that is parasitic on a close relative of the spongy moth, the lab will test whether symbiotic bacteria can be a driving force that diversifies sex-determining mechanisms.
*Illustrative imageSpecies Extinction and Sex Determination (Species)
The lab focuses on speciation reversal, in which two species merge back into one. By examining hybrids of the Ezo spongy moth and the spongy moth, it is testing the hypothesis that differences in sex-determining genes play a role in keeping a species cohesive as a species.
MembersFaculty
The Suzuki Lab consists of faculty members, doctoral and master's students, and technical assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorMasataka SuzukiPublications ↗
- Assistant Professor奥出 絃太
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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: “Lymantria dispar (Spongy Moth) Male & Female” Rafe Roughton / CC0 (cropped)
- Sex-Determining Systems (System): “Bombyx mori larvae, Bornholms Sommerfuglepark 21” Ole Palnatoke Andersen / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Symbiotic Bacteria and Sex (Symbiont): “Gypsy Moth (Lymantria dispar) Egg Mass - Guelph, Ontario” Ryan Hodnett / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Species Extinction and Sex Determination (Species): “Lymantria dispar - para, Lodz(Poland)02(js)” Jerzy Strzelecki / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
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