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Cell Biology Lab (Inaba)
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The lab explores sperm motility and evolution through the cilia and flagella of marine organisms.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring motility and evolution through the cilia of marine organisms
The Inaba Lab uses marine organisms to study the structure and motility mechanisms of cilia and flagella, as well as their evolution.
Cilia, sometimes called the "hairs of the cell," move cells and generate water flow through wave-like beating.
The lab is located inside the Shimoda Marine Research Center, which faces the sea, and works with diverse organisms such as ascidians, sea urchins, ctenophores (comb jellies), and fishes.
The lab also investigates at the molecular level how sperm move and fertilize eggs.
Key terms
- Cilia
- Hair-like structures extending from cells that move cells and water through wave-like beating. Long ones, such as those of sperm, are called flagella.
- Axoneme
- The microtubule-based structure running through the center of a cilium or flagellum. It has a 9+2 arrangement and forms the foundation of wave-like beating.
- Dynein
- A molecular motor protein that binds to microtubules. It generates the wave-like beating of cilia and flagella.
ResearchResearch themes
The Inaba Lab mainly uses marine organisms to study the structure, motility regulation mechanisms, diversity, and evolution of cilia. The lab believes that understanding cilia offers a clue to how life has evolved in interaction with environments such as water.
*Illustrative imageSperm motility and the mechanisms of fertilization
The lab explores at the molecular level how sperm are formed, move, and fertilize eggs, analyzing the signals that control the activation of motility and chemotaxis, as well as the regulation of dynein, a molecular motor. The lab also examines sperm from various animals to study fertilization environments and sperm evolution.
*Illustrative imageCiliary structure and motility regulation
Using sea urchins, ascidians, jellyfish, fishes, mollusks, algae, and other organisms, the lab studies the identification and molecular organization of the components of cilia and flagella, and how their motility is regulated in response to environmental changes. About 250 kinds of proteins, including dynein and its regulatory factors, bind to the microtubules of the axoneme.
*Illustrative imageDiversity and evolution of cilia
Using a wide variety of marine organisms, the lab studies how ciliary functions came to be divided up with the rise of multicellularity, how the comb plates of ctenophores form bundles of tens of thousands of cilia, and why cilia disappeared from the sperm of shrimp and crabs. The lab also investigates, in unicellular organisms, the acquisition and evolution of calaxin and DYBLUP, which were discovered in the lab.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Inaba Lab consist of faculty members, researchers, visiting researchers, doctoral and master's students, and technical assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorKazuo Inaba
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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: “Tunicate colony Nick Hobgood” Nhobgood / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Sperm motility and the mechanisms of fertilization: “Actinopyga agassizii (spawning posture)” Flower Garden Banks - Nature Marine Sanctuary - NOAA / Public domain (cropped)
- Ciliary structure and motility regulation: “Chlamydomanas reinhardtii Flagella 9 - TEM” Elizabeth Smith, Louisa Howard, Erin Dymek / Public domain (cropped)
- Diversity and evolution of cilia: “August 9, 2011 Comb jellies (ctenophores) are predators of larval fish ( )” USEPA Environmental-Protection-Agency / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Nakano Lab): “PSM V41 D632 Private room at the marine biology laboratory” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Molecular Phylogenetics Lab): “Darwin tree” Charles Darwin / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Animal Systematics / Tsuyuki Lab (Aoi Tsuyuki)): “Yellow papillae flatworm (Thysanozoon nigropapillosum)” Betty Wills / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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