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Plant Chemical Genetics Lab
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A lab that explores how signaling molecules work, using the parasitic plant Striga as its model.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring life processes driven by small molecules.
The Plant Chemical Genetics Lab studies life processes driven by small signaling molecules, using parasitic plants, which live by taking nutrients from other plants.
Using small-molecule probes to manipulate and visualize the action of genes, the lab investigates how parasitic plants sense signaling molecules coming from host plants and change their form in response.
The lab focuses mainly on the germination of seeds of Striga, a parasitic plant that causes serious damage to grain production in Africa, and also aims to develop control methods based on what it learns.
The lab belongs to the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM).
Key terms
- Strigolactone
- A signaling molecule made by plants. When it is released from a host's roots into the soil, Striga senses it and begins to germinate
- Striga
- A type of parasitic plant that causes serious damage to grain production in Africa
- Haustorium
- An organ that a parasitic plant forms to invade the roots of its host plant
- Suicidal germination
- A control approach in which seeds are forced to germinate in places without a host plant, causing them to die
ResearchResearch themes
Parasitic plants sense various signaling molecules released from host plants and parasitize them while changing their form step by step. This lab investigates these mechanisms using small-molecule tools, with the aim of also contributing to solutions for global challenges such as Africa's food problem.
*Illustrative imageResponses to signaling molecules from host plants
Striga senses strigolactones released from the host's roots and germinates, then senses quinones, changes the shape of its root, and invades the host through a haustorium. Almost nothing is yet known about the details of this process, and the lab aims to elucidate it using small-molecule tools.
*Illustrative imageHow strigolactones stimulate germination
In collaboration with a chemistry team, the lab developed Yoshimulactone Green, which emits fluorescence when it reacts with strigolactone receptors. Using it, the lab observes the wave-like pattern of receptor activity that occurs inside Striga seeds and investigates how it is linked to germination.
*Illustrative imageControlling Striga through suicidal germination
Using Sphynolactone-7, a hybrid molecule of an artificial scaffold and strigolactone, the lab succeeded in forcing Striga seeds to germinate in places without a host and then die. It is now testing the suicidal germination method in experimental fields in Kenya.
MembersFaculty
The lab's members consist of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, technical staff, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2025
- Project ProfessorYuichiro Tsuchiya
- Project LecturerAkira Morikawa
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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: “Striga hermonthica single flower” Aneth David (SLU) / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Responses to signaling molecules from host plants: “Root of a Acacia mellifera bush plant sapling” GIZ BCBU Project Namibia / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How strigolactones stimulate germination: “Germinated Striga hermonthica Delle (Benth.)” Yuliya Krasylenko / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Controlling Striga through suicidal germination: “Weeding man” Cut angles / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (植物分
子シグナル学): “Leaf epidermis” Louisa Howard (Dartmouth electron microscope facility) / Public domain (cropped) - Related lab (生体分
子動態): “Arabidopsis root hairs” G Lens Microscopist, Megan Gerber / CC BY 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (植物パターン形成): “Arabidopsis thaliana seedling” Alena Kravchenko / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (時間
制御分子): “Toluene-3D-molecular-model-engraved-render-CAS-108-88-3” MolGod Scientific / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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