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Yaguchi Lab
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A lab that uses sea urchin development to explore how body axes and nervous systems are formed.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring how the body and nervous system form, through sea urchin development.
Yaguchi Lab (Developmental Biology) uses sea urchins to uncover the mysteries of the mechanisms that underlie biological phenomena and how they are built.
As the egg divides and each cell follows its own fate, the lab examines which factors act at which timing in early sea urchin embryos.
The lab focuses on how the anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral body axes are established, how neurons are generated, and how sea urchin larvae respond to light.
The lab is located at the Shimoda Marine Research Center in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Key terms
- Body axis formation
- The process by which cells and tissues differentiate and are arranged along the anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral axes. One of the earliest events in development.
- Early embryo
- An embryo in the period shortly after the fertilized egg begins to divide. In sea urchins, it is a material for studying how cell fates are determined.
- Larva
- An individual in the stage after hatching from the egg, during which it lives in a form different from the adult.
NewsLab news
Paper published in Development
Paper published in Zoological Science
Paper published in Nature Communications
Paper accepted in a journal
Paper published in Nature Communications
ResearchResearch themes
Using sea urchins, the lab studies how a single egg cell gives rise to a three-dimensional body, and how the neurons that sense external information and move the larval body are formed. How neurons respond to environmental information, especially light, is also one of the pillars of the research.
*Illustrative imageMechanisms of Body Axis Formation
Body axis formation is one of the earliest events in development. By suppressing the functions of various genes, the lab aims to clarify how cells are accurately differentiated and positioned along the anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral axes.
*Illustrative imageMechanisms of Neural Development
Cells of sea urchins and mammals inherently tend to become neurons. The lab investigates what determines neural fate and what mechanisms suppress that fate.
*Illustrative imageLight Responses in Sea Urchin Larvae
Starting from the chance discovery that sea urchin larvae defecate when exposed to light, the lab identified the pathway from light to the opening of the anus. Because the larvae are transparent, the whole digestive tract can be observed from the outside, and the lab will continue to study the relationship between light and digestive tract responses.
MembersFaculty
Yaguchi Lab's members consist of faculty, researchers (including visiting researchers), technical assistants, and doctoral and master's students.As of 2025
- ProfessorShunsuke Yaguchi
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: “Common starfish - torbay” Herbythyme / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Mechanisms of Body Axis Formation: “Eleutherodactylus planirostris embryos” Alex Abair / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Mechanisms of Neural Development: “Multicolor fluorescence image of a living PC-12 cell” 8x57is / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Light Responses in Sea Urchin Larvae: “Pluteus larva of a sea biscuit” Bruno C. Vellutini / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Sakurai Lab): “Patch clamp schematic 2” PeaBrainC / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Organelle Cell Biology Lab): “Fluorescence Microscopy of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Following Auramine O Staining. 03” Siduduziwe Nxumalo / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Maruo Lab): “SH-SY5Y cells cultured on a 384 microwell plate, imaged with ZEISS Celldiscoverer )” ZEISS Microscopy from Germany / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Developmental Genetics Lab): “Coral on display at Mote Marine Laboratory 2” Will Pittenger / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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