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Animal Genetics and Breeding Lab
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The lab investigates how traits are inherited, using diabetes model animals, Wagyu cattle, and the Japanese crested ibis.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring how animal traits are passed down.
The Animal Genetics and Breeding Lab studies how the various traits that appear in animals are inherited by their offspring and grandoffspring, and how they come to be expressed.
The lab works with model animals for obesity and diabetes, resource animals native to Japan such as Wagyu cattle, and rare animals such as the Japanese crested ibis and the oriental stork.
Based on molecular genetics and statistical genetics, the lab uses new methods such as omics, aiming to contribute to the genetic evaluation and improvement of Wagyu cattle and to the conservation of rare animals.
Undergraduate students are assigned to the Applied Animal Science Course in their third year, and to this lab within the course in their fourth year (the graduate program is the Division of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School of Agriculture).
Key terms
- Multifactorial disease
- A disease caused by the combined effects of multiple genes and the environment. Diabetes is a representative example
- Genomic evaluation
- A method of estimating an animal's genetic ability from information on DNA differences across the whole genome
- Marbling
- Fine deposits of fat within muscle; the so-called marbling of beef
NewsLab news
A paper by Assistant Professor Ogawa and colleagues was published in Theriogenology
A paper by Assistant Professor Ogawa and colleagues was published in Animal
A paper by Professor Yokoi and colleagues was published in BMC Genomics
A paper by Assistant Professor Ogawa and colleagues was published in Animal Science Journal
Assistant Professor Ogawa received the "2025 Animal Science Journal Reviewer Award"
ResearchResearch themes
There is still much that is not understood about how traits are inherited and expressed. Using diabetes model animals, Wagyu cattle, the Japanese crested ibis, the oriental stork, and others, the lab works to uncover these mechanisms and apply them to the evaluation, improvement, and conservation of resource animals.
*Illustrative imageGenetic mechanisms behind diabetes
Diabetes is a representative example of a multifactorial disease. The lab established the ZFDM rat, which spontaneously develops obesity and diabetes, searches for genes involved in the onset through crossbreeding experiments and genome analysis, and confirms them by genome editing.
*Illustrative imageHow fat accumulates in muscle
As joint research bridging medicine and agriculture, the lab compares human intramuscular fat with the marbling of Wagyu beef, focusing on cells thought to be their common origin. It also aims to develop a technology that uses microRNA in blood to diagnose the amount and quality of fat.
*Illustrative imageGenetic evaluation and improvement of Wagyu cattle
While maintaining the genetic diversity of Wagyu cattle, the lab searches for new indicators for improvement, such as cattle behavior and response to heat, and aims to establish efficient breeding methods based on genomic evaluation using genome-wide SNP information.
*Illustrative imageGenetic diversity of the Japanese crested ibis and the oriental stork
For the Japanese crested ibis and the oriental stork, both Special Natural Monuments whose populations are being increased through national projects, the lab develops DNA markers and typing methods and analyzes the immune-related MHC region, in order to maintain the genetic diversity of the conserved populations.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Animal Genetics and Breeding Lab consist of faculty, research students, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorNorihide Yokoi
- Associate ProfessorYukio Taniguchi
- Assistant ProfessorShinichiro Ogawa
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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: “Full Blood Wagyu Bull in Chile” Fernando Hartwig / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Genetic mechanisms behind diabetes: “(20250417) Blood glucose meter 09” Roy Zuo / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How fat accumulates in muscle: “Marbled beef” jit bag from Dublin, Ireland / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Genetic evaluation and improvement of Wagyu cattle: “Tajimagyu2” Japanexperterna.se / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Genetic diversity of the Japanese crested ibis and the oriental stork: “Nipponia nippon Sado Toki Hogo Center 3” Totti / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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