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Molecular Cell Breeding (Totipotency Regulation) Lab
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A lab that uses chemistry to uncover how plant hormones work and to enhance plant growth.
AboutAbout the lab
Solving the mysteries of plant growth with chemistry and molecular biology.
The lab combines chemical biology, which uses the power of chemistry to explore unknown areas of living things, with molecular and cell biology to study how plants grow.
Starting from the view that plant growth rests on two pillars, cell division, differentiation, and elongation on one side and photosynthesis on the other, the lab searches for natural and synthetic compounds and the new genes involved.
For graduate school, the lab corresponds to the Plant Chemical Biology group (Nakano Lab) in the Graduate School of Biostudies.
Undergraduates are assigned to the lab in their fourth year, and from graduate school onward belong to the Graduate School of Biostudies.
Key terms
- Brassinosteroid
- A plant hormone that enhances plant growth and stress tolerance
- Chemical biology
- A research approach that uses chemical compounds as tools to uncover how living things work
- Chemical library
- A collection of tens of thousands of compounds assembled for research
NewsLab news
A doctoral student receives the Kyoto University President's Award
A paper clarifying how KAI2, the receptor for karrikin, a component of smoke, is regulated is published in Nature Communications
A paper on BIL7, a factor that transmits brassinosteroid signals, is published in The Plant Journal
A paper on the search for drought-tolerance genes in plants of the Mongolian grassland is published in BMC Plant Biology
A paper on BIL8, a factor that transmits brassinosteroid signals, is published in Plant Physiology
ResearchResearch themes
Plants have evolved a diverse range of bioactive compounds and use them for growth and adaptation to the environment. By combining chemical biology and molecular cell biology, the lab aims to gain an integrated understanding of how plants grow.
*Illustrative imagePlant hormone signaling and growth
Brassinosteroids promote organ growth, stress tolerance, and disease resistance. Using chemical biology approaches such as biosynthesis inhibitors, the lab has discovered many new genes that transmit this signal.
*Illustrative imagePlant hormones and chloroplasts
It has become clear that brassinosteroids also play an important role in the differentiation, development, and function of chloroplasts. The lab is working to clarify the specific molecular mechanisms involved.
*Illustrative imageSearching for new compounds that control growth
From chemical libraries containing tens of thousands of compounds, the lab searches for new compounds using their effects on plant morphology as a marker. Compounds that induce callus formation and compounds that promote growth have been found.
*Illustrative imageIncreasing plant yield with genes and compounds
The lab applies the genes and compounds it has discovered to genetic modification and genome editing of rice and sugarcane, aiming to help increase food and bioenergy production.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Molecular Cell Breeding Lab consist of faculty, project researchers, secretaries, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorTakeshi Nakano
- Associate ProfessorTakuya Miyakawa
- Assistant ProfessorAyumi Yamagami
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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: “Transplanting rice seedlings Bali” John Y. Can / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Plant hormone signaling and growth: “BLbiosynthesis” Tiki toko / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Plant hormones and chloroplasts: “Chloroplast-drawing” Kārlis Kalviškis / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Searching for new compounds that control growth: “Plant tissue culture sample” Syed Sajidul Islam / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Increasing plant yield with genes and compounds: “Sugarcane Field Srirangapatna Karnataka Jul22 R16 06192” This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves. Feel free to use my photos, but please mention me as the author. I would much appreciate if you send me an or write on my talk page, for my information. Please contact me before commercial use. Please do not upload an edited image here without consulting me. I would like to make corrections only at my own source to ensure that the changes improve the image and are preserved.Otherwise you may upload an edited image with a new name. Please use one of the templates derivative or extract. / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Plant Nutrition Lab): “Листочок моху під мікроскопом” Andrei Savitsky / 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 (Cell Biology of Energy Conversion Lab): “Budding yeast cell walls model. 3D printed” Rosser1954 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Fermentation Control Lab): “Malaria Fermenter ( )” NIAID / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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