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Crop Nutrition Lab
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The lab explores ways to raise crop productivity, starting from the boundary between roots and soil.
AboutAbout the lab
Clarifying the relationships among crops, soil, and microbes
The Crop Nutrition Lab studies how crops take up nutrients from the soil and how productive crops are.
In particular, the lab focuses on how various elements move in the rhizosphere, the boundary between the soil and plant roots.
It combines physiological analysis of plants with multiple omics analyses to investigate productivity and the factors that limit it.
In cooperation with institutions in Japan and abroad, the lab also researches countermeasures for farmland contaminated by a nuclear power plant accident.
Key terms
- Rhizosphere
- The soil immediately surrounding plant roots. Because of substances released by roots and the activity of microbes, its properties differ from those of other soil.
- Omics analysis
- A method of comprehensively measuring genes, metabolites, elements, and so on all together, rather than one at a time.
- Ionome
- The entire elemental composition of an organism, looking at which elements are present and in what amounts all together.
NewsLab news
Associate Professor Watanabe receives the Japanese Society of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition Award
ResearchResearch themes
With the aim of improving crop productivity, the lab studies how plants obtain nutrients from the soil and how they tolerate mineral stress. Alongside investigating the movement of elements at the boundary between roots and soil, it works on countermeasures for contaminated farmland.
*Illustrative imageExploring crop productivity with omics
The lab combines physiological analysis with multiple omics analyses to examine plant productivity and the factors that limit it from various perspectives. It was the first in Japan to adopt ionome analysis, which measures the elements in a plant's body all together.
*Illustrative imageRadioactivity countermeasures for contaminated farmland
For farmland contaminated by a nuclear power plant accident, the lab has continued research on countermeasures in cooperation with institutions in Japan and abroad since immediately after the earthquake disaster.
*Illustrative imageMovement of elements in the rhizosphere
From the perspectives of physiology and ecology, the lab studies how plants obtain nutrients from the soil and how they tolerate mineral stress. It pays particular attention to the movement of elements at the boundary between soil and roots (the rhizosphere).
MembersFaculty
The members of the Crop Nutrition Lab consist of faculty members, researchers, research assistants, administrative assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- Project ProfessorTakuro Shinano
- Associate ProfessorToshihiro Watanabe
- Associate ProfessorHayato Maruyama
- Project Associate ProfessorReika Isoda
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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: “Crops NR )” USDA NRCS / Public domain (cropped)
- Exploring crop productivity with omics: “Closeup of Soybean Leaves ( )” United Soybean Board / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Radioactivity countermeasures for contaminated farmland: “Rice Paddies In Aizu, Japan” BrianAdler / Public domain (cropped)
- Movement of elements in the rhizosphere: “Root-nodule01” Louisa Howard - Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Food and Nutrition Lab): “Foods with a high fibre content, such as bread, grains, chia seeds and nuts” formulatehealth / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Microbial Physiology Lab): “Bifidobacterium longum en microscopie électronique” Julie6301 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Bioorganic Chemistry Lab): “Jasmonic acid molecule ball” Jynto (talk) / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Applied Molecular Microbiology Lab): “Rice blast lab06” Ark. Agricultural Experiment Station / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
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