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Chemical Ecology Lab
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A lab that elucidates the chemical substances linking living things to one another, such as plant toxins and insect pheromones.
AboutAbout the lab
Unraveling the diverse strategies of living things through chemistry.
The Chemical Ecology Lab focuses on chemical substances that act in interactions between organisms and analyzes the mechanisms involved.
It deals with toxic substances made by plants, the countermeasures of insects that detoxify and overcome them, and pheromones and hormones that control insect behavior in tiny amounts.
By analyzing, synthesizing, and bioassaying various bioactive substances, the lab clarifies the strategies of living things.
Undergraduates are assigned to the lab in their fourth year (the graduate program is the Division of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Agriculture).
Key terms
- Pheromone
- A chemical substance released from the body to send signals to others of the same species
- Parasitoid wasp
- A small wasp that lays its eggs in the bodies of other insects. It is a natural enemy of pests
- Hydrocarbon
- A compound made only of carbon and hydrogen. It is the main component of petroleum
NewsLab news
A doctoral student won an Excellent Poster Award at the 71st Annual Conference on Mass Spectrometry
Doctoral and undergraduate students won a Topics Award at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry
A doctoral student won an Excellent Poster Award at the 49th BMS Conference
ResearchResearch themes
The lab focuses on chemical substances that act in interactions between organisms. It analyzes, synthesizes, and tests various bioactive substances, including plant defense compounds, insect pheromones and hormones, and snake venoms.
*Illustrative imageβ-Tyrosine made by rice
In collaboration with labs such as the Plant Breeding Lab, the lab discovered the rare amino acid (3R)-β-tyrosine produced by rice and the gene involved in its synthesis. It is now investigating its role from the perspective of its effects on other plants.
*Illustrative imageToxin components of the yamakagashi snake
The yamakagashi (tiger keelback) stores the toxins of the toads it eats in an organ in its neck and uses them for defense. In collaboration with the Graduate School of Science, the lab analyzes the toxin components of related snakes in Asia to explore the evolution of that organ.
*Illustrative imageHydrocarbons made by mites
Acarid mites secrete hydrocarbons similar to kerosene and gasoline onto their body surface. The lab searches for the synthetic pathway and the genes of the enzymes involved, aiming to connect this to new energy resources.
*Illustrative imageThe three-way relationship among plants, pests, and natural enemies
Plants that have been eaten emit scents that attract parasitoid wasps, the natural enemies of the pests, and differences in these scents involve FACs, compounds in caterpillar saliva. The lab showed that FACs make the larvae's nitrogen metabolism more efficient.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Chemical Ecology Lab consist of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, administrative staff, research students, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2025
- ProfessorNaoki Mori
- Associate ProfessorNaoko Yoshinaga
VoicesStudent voices
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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: “A green plant bug feeds on a yellow wildflower in the white drin” Julianruizp / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- β-Tyrosine made by rice: “Rice plants 🌱 15” Muktee1494 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Toxin components of the yamakagashi snake: “Rhabdophis tigrinus 29676108” Zinogre / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Hydrocarbons made by mites: “Tyrophagus putrescentiae” cgmayers / CC0 (cropped)
- The three-way relationship among plants, pests, and natural enemies: “Parasitoid wasp on Caterpillar closeup” Nikhil More / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Chemical Regulation of Biological Functions Lab): “Auxin Phototropism” Patricklockwoood / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Bioregulation Chemistry Lab): “Mitochondria 5 -- Smart-Servier” Laboratoires Servier / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Plant Molecular Biology (Gene Function and Expression) Lab): “Marchantia polymorpha HC1” Holger Casselmann / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Cell Biology of Energy Conversion Lab): “Budding yeast cell walls model. 3D printed” Rosser1954 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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