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Wachi Lab
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A lab that takes on the question "What is life?" through bacterial cell division.
AboutAbout the lab
What is life? Thinking it through bacterial division
The Wachi Lab studies bacterial cells to address the question "What is life?"
This is because the lab considers the most essential property of life to be replicating itself and multiplying.
It investigates why Escherichia coli always divides at the center of the cell and how the bacterial cell cycle proceeds.
The lab also searches for new antibiotics and studies how bacteria can be made to produce an ingredient of umami seasoning.
Key terms
- Cell cycle
- The series of events that proceed in a set order from one cell division to the next.
- Antibiotic
- A substance produced by microorganisms that inhibits the growth of other microorganisms. Also used as medicine.
- Actinomycetes
- A group of bacteria that live in places such as soil. Known for producing many antibiotics.
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
Considering the most essential property of life to be self-replication and multiplication, the lab takes on this theme using bacterial cells. In addition to the mechanisms of cell division and the progression of the cell cycle, it also studies the search for new antibiotics and the production of substances using bacteria.
*Illustrative imageMechanisms of bacterial cell division
Escherichia coli always divides at the center of the cell. How does the cell recognize the middle? The lab is working to answer this, using as a clue the phenomenon that when the antibiotic penicillin acts, the center bulges and bursts.
*Illustrative imageThe bacterial cell cycle
Bacteria have been thought to lack a mitotic apparatus. Analyses using A22, a new antibacterial agent developed in the lab, revealed that bacteria also have a mitotic apparatus that uses actin-like proteins.
*Illustrative imageSearching for new antibiotics
A new antibiotic, alaremycin, was found in actinomycetes isolated in a second-year student laboratory course. You may even find a new antibiotic in bacteria you isolated yourself.
*Illustrative imageSubstance production by bacteria
Coryneform bacteria produce glutamic acid, the main component of umami seasoning. Because these bacteria produce glutamic acid only when cell division stops under special conditions, the lab studies this curious mechanism.
MembersFaculty
The Wachi Lab consists of faculty members and master's and undergraduate students.As of 2024
- ProfessorMasaaki WachiPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorIwai NoritakaPublications ↗
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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: “Shakeflask” Kjaergaard at en.wikipedia / Public domain (cropped)
- Mechanisms of bacterial cell division: “E. coli bacteria (cropped)” NIAID / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- The bacterial cell cycle: “PDB 1jce EBI” Jawahar Swaminathan and MSD staff at the European Bioinformatics Institute / Public domain (cropped)
- Searching for new antibiotics: “Streptomyces hygroscopicus” Snuupo / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Substance production by bacteria: “Corynebacterium glutamicum ( )” Anthony D'Onofrio / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tanaka-Yoshida Lab): “Leaf epithelium, guard cells, stomatal pore and peripheral chloroplasts” Emilio Ermini / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Hirasawa Lab): “Stainless steel vinification tanks” Cjp24 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Horie Lab): “Saccharomyces cerevisiae SEM” Mogana Das Murtey and Patchamuthu Ramasamy / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Yatsunami Lab): “Salin de Gruissan (Ifremer )” Isabelle Cheret / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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