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Plant Physiology Lab
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The lab compares the timing of flowering and the mechanisms of reproduction in plants, using bryophytes and flowering plants.
AboutAbout the lab
How plants sense the seasons and produce the next generation.
The lab studies the various responses that plants show to their internal and external environments.
Using two model plants, Arabidopsis thaliana and the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, the lab uncovers these mechanisms at the molecular level and aims to discover principles common to all land plants.
At the graduate level, the lab is the Molecular and Metabolic Regulation Lab (Araki Lab) of the Graduate School of Biostudies.
Undergraduates are assigned to the Advanced Biological Science Course in their third year, and to this lab within the course in their fourth year (the graduate school is the Graduate School of Biostudies, Division of Integrated Life Science).
Key terms
- Growth phase transition
- The switch of a plant from the stage of growing leaves and stems to the stage of flowering and producing offspring
- Florigen
- A hormone made in the leaves that carries the signal telling a plant to flower
- Model plant
- A plant widely used in research because it is easy to grow and its genes are easy to study
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
The lab studies the various responses that plants show to their internal and external environments. Using Arabidopsis and Marchantia, it investigates flowering and the transition to reproduction, the transport and action of florigen, gamete formation, and the evolution of life cycle regulation.
*Illustrative imageHow plants sense day length
Plants know the season from the length of the day. Marchantia also perceives day length using a set of genes shared with flowering plants, but its mechanism is thought to be very different. The lab investigates how photoreceptors and other factors regulate the determinants of reproduction.
*Illustrative imageShared components in switching growth phases
The lab found that very similar miRNAs and SPL transcription factors are involved in the growth phase transition in both Marchantia and Arabidopsis. It now investigates how SPL regulates the genes that determine reproduction in Marchantia.
*Illustrative imageA factor that determines the precursors of germ cells
Analysis of Marchantia mutants showed that the transcription factor BONOBO controls the differentiation of the progenitor cells of the organs that produce eggs and sperm. In flowering plants, it is also involved in the differentiation of cells inside pollen.
*Illustrative imageHow sperm cells form
The sperm of Marchantia and the sperm cells in the pollen of flowering plants differ greatly in form and properties, yet the same gene, DUO1, controls their differentiation. The lab is searching for the gene regulation mechanisms that produce this difference.
MembersFaculty
The lab's members are faculty, researchers, academic support staff, administrative assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorTakashi Araki
- Associate ProfessorShohei Shohei
- Assistant ProfessorKeisuke Inoe
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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: “Marchantia polymorpha - Common Liverwort 02” Jasper Shide / CC0 (cropped)
- How plants sense day length: “Marchantia polymorpha gemmae cups and female structures” Rosser1954 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Shared components in switching growth phases: “Müürlooga (Arabidopsis thaliana) lehekarv (trihhoom) 311 0805” Heiti Paves / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- A factor that determines the precursors of germ cells: “Marchantia quadrata 2015” Des Callaghan / CC0 (cropped)
- How sperm cells form: “Marchantia polymorpha male” Plantsurfer / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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