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Miwa Lab
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A lab that explores, at the molecular level, how plants respond to nutrients in the soil.
AboutAbout the lab
Deciphering the wisdom plants use to live in soil
The Miwa Lab studies, at the molecular level, how plants respond to the soil environment in order to live.
Through evolution, plants have developed mechanisms to selectively take up the inorganic elements they need from the soil and to exclude elements that are toxic.
The lab focuses in particular on boron, one of the essential elements, and investigates how plants sense nutrient deficiency and excess and how they regulate transport and metabolism accordingly.
Based on these findings, the lab aims to create plants that can grow even in nutrient-poor soil.
Key terms
- Boron
- One of the essential elements for plants. It is used to bind polysaccharides in the cell wall to one another.
- Transporter
- A protein embedded in the cell membrane that carries substances across the membrane.
- Arabidopsis
- A small herbaceous plant widely used in plant experiments because of its short generation time and ease of genetic analysis.
ResearchResearch themes
The lab conducts basic research to understand, at the molecular level, how plants respond to the soil environment in order to live. It is built on two pillars: elucidating plant responses to the environment and developing plants that tolerate environmental stress.
*Illustrative imageHow Plants Sense Nutrients
Little is known about how plants sense deficiencies or excesses of elements in the soil, or the presence of harmful elements. Using boron as a model element and the Arabidopsis boron transporter BOR1 as a clue, the lab is trying to identify the molecules that do the sensing.
*Illustrative imageGenes That Determine Mineral Use
The amount of minerals a plant needs differs by species and variety, but the genes that determine it are unknown. For nitrogen, phosphorus, and boron, the lab collects Arabidopsis mutants that grow well even when the nutrient concentration in their leaves is low, and searches for genes that increase nutrient use efficiency.
*Illustrative imageDiversity in Wild Populations
Plant populations are thought to have evolved differently depending on the soil environment of the places where they have lived. The lab examines the diversity of genes involved in inorganic nutrient transport in relation to soil environments, in order to understand how populations have evolved.
*Illustrative imageCreating Plants That Tolerate Nutrient Stress
In Arabidopsis, enhancing the function of the boron transporters BOR1 and BOR4 made plants tolerant of both boron deficiency and boron excess. The lab is testing whether the same approach works in actual crops: tomato, rapeseed, and wheat.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Miwa Lab are faculty and students in the master's program and the undergraduate program.As of 2026
- ProfessorKyoko Miwa
VoicesStudent voices
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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: “Rapsfeld Rapeseed Brassica napus” Richard Bartz, Munich aka Makro Freak / CC BY-SA 2.5 (cropped)
- How Plants Sense Nutrients: “Borax - Kramer Borate deposit, Boron, Kern Co, California, USA” Rock Currier / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Genes That Determine Mineral Use: “Arabidopsis thal on white” Reo On / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Diversity in Wild Populations: “A soil profile on Kilner Bank - geograph.org.uk - 92677” Chris Yeates / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Creating Plants That Tolerate Nutrient Stress: “- Bush tomato plant (Totem), Trimingham, Norfolk (2)” Kolforn / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Morphology and Function III Lab): “Arabidopsis thal background” Reo On / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Chiba Lab): “A thaliana” Safflle / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (RTNakano Lab): “-Chlorophytum comosum-02” Wildfeuer / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- Related lab (Kitada Lab): “Rat eating or praying?” Jean-Etienne Poirrier / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
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