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Plant Nutrition Lab
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A lab that studies the mechanisms of photosynthesis and plant nutrition at the molecular level, with an eye to the future of food and energy.
AboutAbout the lab
Thinking about the future of food and energy through the workings of plants.
The Plant Nutrition Lab aims to understand the role plants play in the Earth's material cycles and to think about the future of environmental, food, and energy problems.
It studies the mechanisms of photosynthesis, how plants respond to environmental stress, material production by microalgae, and the inorganic nutrients that support plant growth.
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
- Reactive oxygen species
- Oxygen made highly reactive by receiving extra electrons or energy. It damages cells
- Diatom
- A microalga with a glassy shell. It carries out much of the photosynthesis in the sea
- Inorganic nutrients
- Inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium, and boron that plants take up from the soil
NewsLab news
A doctoral student won a poster award at a satellite meeting of the International Photosynthesis Congress
A paper with Assistant Professor Ochiai as first author was published in Physiol Plant
A paper with Associate Professor Kobayashi as corresponding author was published in Plant Journal
A paper with a doctoral student as first author was accepted by PNAS
A master's student won an Excellent Poster Award at the Japanese Society of Photosynthesis Research
ResearchResearch themes
To understand the role plants play in the Earth's material cycles, the lab studies photosynthesis and plant nutrition at the molecular level. It aims to give plants the ability to cope with a changing global environment, and thereby to contribute to solving food and energy problems.
*Illustrative imageUnderstanding photosynthesis at the molecular level
The lab has clarified how the reaction of photosystem II, which splits water and releases oxygen, is regulated, and how the amount of light harvested is regulated. It also studies how the proteins that support photosynthesis assemble, and the factors involved in redox regulation.
*Illustrative imageHow plants cope with reactive oxygen species
Reactive oxygen species readily form during photosynthesis, and plants have mechanisms to suppress them and to scavenge them quickly. Using various non-destructive measurements, the lab investigates these mechanisms and their capacity, and aims to use the results to develop indicators for crop management and breeding.
*Illustrative imageMaking useful substances through diatom photosynthesis
The lab decoded the genome of Chaetoceros, a diatom used as a fishery resource, and, in collaboration with other groups, determined the three-dimensional structure of its light-harvesting proteins. Using genome editing and similar methods, it aims to modify photosynthesis to increase growth and the production of useful substances.
*Illustrative imageInorganic nutrients that support plant growth
A shortage of inorganic nutrients causes disorders in crops. The lab studies how cells respond to deficiency at the molecular and cellular levels, focusing in particular on the role of boron in the cell wall, and on how cell wall pectin is made and what it does.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Plant Nutrition Lab consist of faculty, administrative assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorKentaro Ifuku
- Associate ProfessorMasaru Kobayashi
- Assistant ProfessorKumiko Ochiai
- Assistant ProfessorKaori Kohzuma
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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: “Листочок моху під мікроскопом” Andrei Savitsky / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Understanding photosynthesis at the molecular level: “PDB 1k6n EBI” Jawahar Swaminathan and MSD staff at the European Bioinformatics Institute / Public domain (cropped)
- How plants cope with reactive oxygen species: “Sunlight on leaves Vagamon” Dr. Chinchu C. / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Making useful substances through diatom photosynthesis: “Chaetoceros sp” Atsukada / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Inorganic nutrients that support plant growth: “Endivien Bormangel, Hinrichs-Berger, Jan, LTZ Augustenberg” Hinrichs-Berger, Jan, Dr., Fachreferent für Mykologie, LTZ Augustenberg, Karlsruhe. / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Molecular Cell Breeding (Totipotency Regulation) Lab): “Transplanting rice seedlings Bali” John Y. Can / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Cell Biology of Energy Conversion Lab): “Budding yeast cell walls model. 3D printed” Rosser1954 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Plant Molecular Biology (Gene Function and Expression) Lab): “Marchantia polymorpha HC1” Holger Casselmann / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Fermentation Control Lab): “Malaria Fermenter ( )” NIAID / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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