LAB LOGA page on LabLog, a review site (not the lab's official page)
Fujita Lab
Machine-translated · View original
Using bryophytes as study material, the lab seeks to uncover how plants develop and respond to their environment.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring the remarkable abilities hidden in plant cells.
The Fujita Lab studies the developmental mechanisms and environmental responses specific to plants, and their evolution, at the level of genes and cells.
It tackles questions such as why plants excel at regeneration and totipotency, and why plant cells divide almost indefinitely without becoming cancerous.
Using bryophytes such as the moss Physcomitrium patens as its main study material, the lab combines molecular genetics, cell biology, and omics analysis.
The Fujita Lab and the Naramoto Lab share a common research base and each admits its own undergraduate and graduate students, while the two labs cooperate in supervising them.
Key terms
- Asymmetric cell division
- A division that produces a cell with properties different from the original cell. Also called unequal division.
- Totipotency
- The ability of a cell that has once differentiated to return to a stem cell state and become any type of cell.
- Plasmodesmata
- Narrow channels connecting adjacent plant cells. RNAs and proteins move back and forth through them.
NewsLab news
A master's student received the Best Presentation Award at the Cell Wall Researchers Network
A master's student received the Organizing Committee Special Award at the Japanese Society for Biological Sciences in Space
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to clarify how plant cells control proliferation and differentiation, and to become able to freely manipulate cell fate. It also investigates plant-specific mechanisms of environmental adaptation and how they connect to developmental programs.
*Illustrative imageProliferation, differentiation, and totipotency
Using Physcomitrium patens as a model, the lab has searched for genes involved in the asymmetric division of stem cells and has found cell polarity factors and factors involved in cell fate. It aims to clarify why plant cells are more totipotent than animal cells.
*Illustrative imageMechanisms of multicellularity
Plant cells are connected by plasmodesmata, and RNAs and proteins move through these channels, conveying information about differentiation state and the external environment. The lab is building experimental systems to visualize and measure this cell-to-cell communication, and is investigating how it is regulated.
*Illustrative imageEvolution and diversity of plant form
The lab investigates when in evolutionary history plant hormones such as auxin and abscisic acid began to function. Tracing back from angiosperms to gymnosperms, ferns, bryophytes, and green algae, it explores what happened as plants moved onto land.
*Illustrative imageCrosstalk between environmental response and development
The lab found that abscisic acid, a stress hormone, suppresses the asymmetric division of stem cells and switches them to symmetric division that produces stress-tolerant cells. One of its goals is to develop plants that grow well even in extreme environments.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Plant Evolution and Developmental Regulation Lab consist of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD and master's students.As of 2026
- ProfessorTomomichi Fujita
- Assistant ProfessorPrerna Singh
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 Fujita Lab
Koshikawa LabFaculty of Science, Department of Biological SciencesEvolutionary developmental biology
Kuroiwa-Chikami-Yang LabFaculty of Science, Department of Biological SciencesMolecular cytogenetics, evolutionary developmental biology
Naramoto LabFaculty of Science, Department of Biological SciencesPlant physiology, plant developmental biology, cell biology,…
Kotani LabFaculty of Science, Department of Biological SciencesMolecular developmental biologyThe 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: “Ecotypes of Physcomitrella patens” Lab of Ralf Reski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralf_Reski) / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Proliferation, differentiation, and totipotency: “Physcomitrella Sporophyt” Manuel Mildner & Annette Hohe / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Mechanisms of multicellularity: “Bryophyte Leaf Cells” KarlGaff / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Evolution and diversity of plant form: “Fern frond. ( )” Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand / CC0 (cropped)
- Crosstalk between environmental response and development: “Moss Growing on Bridport Sands - geograph.org.uk - 765242” Nigel Mykura / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Koshikawa Lab): “Dguttifera” MA Hanson / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Kuroiwa-Chikami-Yang Lab): “Chicken embryo” Mjeltsch / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Naramoto Lab): “Arabidopsis thaliana kz07” Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Kotani Lab): “Danio rerio port” Soulkeeper / Public domain (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.