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Hongoh Lab
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This lab studies unculturable microbes that live in termite guts and glaciers.
AboutAbout the lab
Uncovering how unculturable microbes live.
Hongoh Lab studies the physiology and ecology of communities of microbes in the environment that are difficult to culture.
It is said that more than 99% of the microbes on Earth have no known method of cultivation.
The lab investigates the relationships between the protists that digest wood in termite guts and the bacteria and archaea that live in symbiosis with them.
It also targets microbial communities living in glaciers and snow, using methods such as metagenomics and single-cell genomics.
Key terms
- Symbiosis
- A relationship in which different kinds of organisms live together and influence each other
- Metagenomics
- A method of reading the DNA of microbes in an environment all at once to find out what kinds are present and what they can do
- Protist
- A eukaryote whose body consists of a single cell. In termite guts, protists digest wood
NewsLab news
A paper by a doctoral student was published in ISME Communications
A paper by an alumnus describing a new genus and species of bacteria was published in an international journal
A paper reporting a new termite species discovered in Shikoku was published in Mokuzai Hozon (Wood Preservation)
Assistant Professor Takumi Murakami received the Young Researcher Award of the Japanese Society of Microbial Ecology
An alumnus received an Excellent Poster Award at the Japanese Society of Microbial Ecology meeting
ResearchResearch themes
For more than 99% of microbial species on Earth, no cultivation method is known, and their true nature remains largely unknown. The lab aims to clarify the physiology and ecology of such hard-to-culture microbes using methods such as molecular phylogenetic analysis of rRNA genes, fluorescence in situ hybridization, metagenomics, and single-cell genomics.
*Illustrative imageGut Symbiotic Systems of Termites
Termites are social insects that feed only on dead plant material, and they are important decomposers from temperate to tropical regions. Most of the protists in their guts that live by digesting wood, as well as the bacteria and archaea living inside and on the surface of their cells, have not been isolated in culture. Using culture-independent methods, the lab seeks to understand the mechanisms and origins of this symbiosis.
*Illustrative imageMicrobes of Glaciers, Snow, and Ice
Glaciers also host algae and bacteria specific to that environment. In particular, cryoconite, a brown granular aggregate formed by mineral particles and microbes, harbors diverse symbiotic microbes. The lab examines the structure and functions of these communities, mainly through rRNA analysis and metagenomics.
MembersFaculty
Hongoh Lab members include faculty, researchers, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorYuichi HongohPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorTakumi MurakamiPublications ↗
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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: “Termite mounds at Kadavoor” Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Gut Symbiotic Systems of Termites: “Reticulitermes flavipes worker” USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Laboratory from Beltsville, USA / Public domain (cropped)
- Microbes of Glaciers, Snow, and Ice: “Taylor Glacier, cryoconite hole” Peter Rejcek, NSF / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (野澤研究室): “Model of Nucleosome Array” Rkott / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (刑部祐里子研究室): “Arabidopsis thaliana kz07” Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (増田研究室): “Cyanobacteria guerrero negro” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (加藤研究室): “Takifugu poecilonotus by DaijuAzuma” Daiju Azuma / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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