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Morphology and Function II Lab
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The lab explores, at the level of cellular mechanisms, how plants respond to nutrients and pathogens.
AboutAbout the lab
Uncovering at the molecular level how plants adapt to their environment.
The Morphology and Function II Lab studies the molecular mechanisms that allow plants to survive in diverse environments.
Plants, which live rooted in place, adapt to harsh environmental changes by skillfully altering the conditions inside their cells.
The lab focuses in particular on nutrient stress and pathogen stress, which have a major impact on growth and productivity, and investigates the molecular mechanisms that regulate them.
Using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana as its main material, the lab combines molecular genetics, physiological and biochemical analysis, and imaging.
Key terms
- Plant immunity
- A series of reactions by which a plant senses the invasion of a pathogen and defends itself
- Transcription factor
- A protein that binds to DNA and changes which genes are read and how much
- Ubiquitin
- A small tag attached to proteins. Tagged proteins are directed toward degradation or changes in their function
NewsLab news
Master's student received the Excellence in Presentation Award at the master's thesis presentation
Paper on plant immunity under sugar deficiency and high humidity published in PNAS
Doctoral student received the Student Excellent Presentation Award from the Japanese Society for Plant Biotechnology
Review on ubiquitin signaling of membrane proteins published in Plant Cell Physiol
ResearchResearch themes
By analyzing cellular functions, the lab aims to clarify how organisms adapt to their environment. It focuses in particular on adaptation strategies to nutrient stress and pathogen stress, which greatly influence plant growth and productivity.
*Illustrative imageSensing and Adapting to Nutrient Balance
The balance between sugar (a carbon source) and nitrogen strongly affects plant growth. How plants sense this balance and adapt to it remained unclear for a long time, and the lab investigates it by focusing on protein modifications such as ubiquitination and phosphorylation.
*Illustrative imageNutrient Signals and Flowering Time
Nutrients are not only raw materials for metabolism but also regulate growth through intracellular signals. The lab identified a transcription factor involved in flowering in response to nitrogen nutrition, and showed that its phosphorylation acts as a molecular switch for flowering time.
*Illustrative imageRegulation of Plant Immunity by Nutrient Status
Plant immunity is important for protecting crops from disease, but immune responses and growth are in a trade-off relationship. The lab investigates how plants keep the strength of their immunity optimal according to their own nutrient status.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Morphology and Function II Lab are faculty members, technical officers, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, undergraduate thesis students, and technical staff.As of 2025
- Project ProfessorJunji Yamaguchi
- Associate ProfessorTakeo Sato
- Assistant ProfessorJunpei Takagi
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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: “Arabidopsis thal kz1” Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Sensing and Adapting to Nutrient Balance: “Sweetgum-leaf-interveinal-chlorosis” Jim Conrad / Public domain (cropped)
- Nutrient Signals and Flowering Time: “Arabidopsis mutants” Daniel Ocampo / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Regulation of Plant Immunity by Nutrient Status: “Corynespora cassiicola Ring-Spot Symptoms on Tomato Skin” Dr. Ken Pernezny, Gary Vallad, Abraham Fulmer / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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（楢本研究室） ): “Arabidopsis thaliana kz07” Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (植物微生物分子生態学研究室
（RTNakano Lab） ): “-Chlorophytum comosum-02” Wildfeuer / CC BY 2.5 (cropped) - Related lab (Yoshida Lab
（吉田研究室） ): “Docosahexaenoic-acid-3D-sf” Ben Mills / Public domain (cropped)
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