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Plant Genetics Lab
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Using wheat as a model, the lab explores how genetic information is passed to the next generation and how species come into being.
AboutAbout the lab
Studying the science of how genetic information is inherited.
The Plant Genetics Lab studies the universality of genetic mechanisms and the diversity of organisms, using plants, especially wheat, as its material.
It investigates groups of genes involved in agriculturally important traits, adaptation to the environment, and interactions with pathogens, as well as changes in genomes and chromosomes.
From a genetics perspective, the lab also studies speciation, the emergence of new crop species, and the evolution of allopolyploids, with the aim of applying the results to crop breeding.
Undergraduate students are assigned to the Advanced Bioscience course in their third year, and to this lab within the course in their fourth year. (Graduate students belong to the Division of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School of Agriculture.)
Key terms
- Allopolyploid
- An organism that carries combined sets of chromosomes from different species. Bread wheat is an example
- Aneuploid
- An individual whose chromosome number is higher or lower than the normal number
- Speciation
- The emergence of separate species that cannot interbreed from a single species
ResearchResearch themes
The lab's first professor and colleagues showed that bread wheat arose from a cross between tetraploid wheat and wild goat grass (Aegilops tauschii), followed by genome doubling. Making use of Kyoto University's large collection of cultivated and wild species, the lab focuses on research into allopolyploids.
*Illustrative imageWhat determines the traits of allopolyploids
Allopolyploids carry chromosomes derived from different species, and their traits are thought to be determined by how their genes function. The lab examines synthetic allopolyploids and other materials using genome editing and omics analysis.
*Illustrative imageThe barriers that separate species
Hybrids produced by crosses between species can show growth defects such as dwarfism, necrosis, and shriveled seeds. By identifying the responsible genes and how these defects arise, the lab seeks to understand the genetic basis of the barriers involved in speciation.
*Illustrative imageHow chromosome number is kept stable
Artificially created allopolyploids often produce aneuploids, which have a reduced chromosome number. The lab investigates how natural allopolyploids suppress this, using cytogenetic and molecular genetic methods across a variety of hybrids.
*Illustrative imageHow wheat interacts with pathogens
Targeting powdery mildew and blast fungus, which cause serious damage to wheat, the lab searches wild wheat species for new disease resistance genes and also studies the pathogen genes involved in infection.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Plant Genetics Lab consist of faculty, specially appointed researchers, technical assistants, research students, and PhD, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorKentaro Yoshida
- Associate ProfessorYoshihiro Inoe
- Project Assistant ProfessorKenya Tsuji
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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: “GBIF” Andre Hosper / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- What determines the traits of allopolyploids: “Aegilops tauschii ARS-2” USDA, ARS / Public domain (cropped)
- The barriers that separate species: “Perennial wheat regrowth” Dehaan / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- How chromosome number is kept stable: “Polyploid wheat origins” Ian Alexander / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How wheat interacts with pathogens: “Powdery mildew 9” Dmitry Brant / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (植物病理学分野): “Septoria-tritici” Maccheek / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (生態情報開発学分
野): “Colony of Red spider mites (Tetranychus urticae)” Aleksey Gnilenkov from Moscow, Russia / CC BY 2.0 (cropped) - Related lab (栽培植物起原学分野): “Field of buckwheat in Brazil” Jose.brenner / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (生殖生物学分野): “Blastocyst embryo” Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS) / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
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