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Kato Lab
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A lab that deciphers the cellular mechanisms of environmental adaptation from the bodies of fish.
AboutAbout the lab
How fish reveal the mechanisms of adaptation to the environment
The Kato Lab studies how diverse animals, mainly fish, adapt to environmental change and maintain homeostasis in the body.
The key is the epithelial transport systems in the kidney, digestive tract, and gills.
Epithelial cells finely regulate the movement of water, ions, and nutrients in and out of the body, and these basic mechanisms are broadly shared from fish to humans.
The lab forms hypotheses from genome information and gene expression data, and tests them with methods such as molecular cell biology and electrophysiology.
Key terms
- Membrane transporter
- A protein in the cell membrane that moves ions, sugars, and other substances into and out of the cell. Includes channels and pumps.
- Homeostasis
- The ability to keep the concentration and composition of body fluids constant even when the external environment changes.
- Osmotic pressure
- The force that draws water from the dilute side when solutions of different concentrations are separated by a membrane.
NewsLab news
A paper by doctoral students and others accepted in Am J Physiol
Paper published in Biochem Biophys Res Commun
Paper by Assistant Professor Nagashima-Kasahara and others published in Physiol Rep
Paper by Assistant Professor Nagashima-Kasahara and others published in Comp Biochem Physiol
Discovery that a function lost during evolution can be restored
ResearchResearch themes
The lab studies how diverse animals, mainly fish, adapt to environmental change and maintain homeostasis in the body. Focusing on membrane transporters in the epithelial cells of the kidney, intestine, and gills, it compares across species their gene repertoire and expression, electrophysiological properties, subcellular localization, and evolution.
*Illustrative imageIon excretion by the kidneys of marine fish
Marine fish live in seawater with an osmotic pressure about three times that of their body fluids, so they drink seawater and excrete the excess salt. In the pufferfish kidney, the lab has found membrane transporters that excrete magnesium, sulfate ions, and calcium into the urine, and is studying their properties.
*Illustrative imageSalt uptake and water excretion in freshwater fish
Freshwater fish live in water with little salt, so they excrete dilute urine to get rid of water and absorb small amounts of salt through the gills. The lab measures the transport activity of proteins such as Slc9a3 in gill ionocytes and studies how salt is taken up against a concentration gradient.
*Illustrative imageA new transporter that brings in acid
Cells have many transporters that export acid. However, Slc9b1 of the fruit fly showed an unexpected activity of transporting hydrogen ions and chloride ions together, raising the possibility that it works in the opposite direction, bringing acid into the cell.
*Illustrative imageHow the swim bladder accumulates gas
Many fish keep gas in the swim bladder to maintain buoyancy. In the pufferfish swim bladder, the lab examines where the transporters for lactate and glucose and the gluconeogenic enzymes are located, working toward understanding how the blood is locally acidified to release oxygen.
MembersFaculty
The Kato Lab consists of faculty members, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and research students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorKato AkiraPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorAyumi Nagashima-KasaharaPublications ↗
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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: “Takifugu poecilonotus by DaijuAzuma” Daiju Azuma / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Ion excretion by the kidneys of marine fish: “Kidney cd10 ihc” Nephron / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Salt uptake and water excretion in freshwater fish: “Danio rerio port” Soulkeeper / Public domain (cropped)
- A new transporter that brings in acid: “Drosophila melanogaster Proboscis” Sanjay Acharya / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How the swim bladder accumulates gas: “Swim bladder (Abramis brama) (leszcz)” Alter welt / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (中村信大研究室): “Multicolor fluorescence image of a living PC-12 cell” 8x57is / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (二階堂研究室): “Curious young cichlids” Cethuyghe / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (立花研究室): “Aglantha digitale medusa” Belostomatid / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (増田研究室): “Cyanobacteria guerrero negro” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
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