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Forest Biochemistry Lab
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A lab that uncovers, starting from genes, how mushrooms break down wood, and applies that power to new materials.
AboutAbout the lab
Building a "green civilization" with the power of mushrooms.
The Forest Biochemistry Lab focuses on white-rot fungi (mushrooms) and uses biochemistry and molecular biology to clarify how matter cycles in forests.
The lab applies the knowledge gained to develop new ways of using forests in harmony with natural ecosystems.
Its goal is to create a "green civilization" that is compatible with protecting the natural environment and leads to a decarbonized society.
Undergraduates join the lab in their fourth year (the graduate program is the Division of Forest Science, Graduate School of Agriculture).
Key terms
- White-rot fungi
- A group of wood-decomposing mushrooms. They can break down even lignin, which is hard to decompose, and make wood rot to a whitish color.
- Lignin
- A component that makes the cell walls of wood hard and strong and protects them from degradation by microorganisms.
- Basidiomycetes
- A group of fungi to which many mushrooms belong. They are distinct from baker's yeast and koji mold (ascomycetes).
NewsLab news
Associate Professor Kawauchi and colleagues received the Encouragement Award and the Young Researcher Award at the Filamentous Fungi Gene Research Group meeting
A doctoral student received the Outstanding Student Award from the Japan Wood Research Society
A doctoral student received the Student Outstanding Presentation Award at the Japanese Society of Mushroom Science
Students received Poster Awards at ISWST and the Japan Wood Research Society
ResearchResearch themes
The lab works on how white-rot fungi (mushrooms) degrade wood, the basic properties and new biotechnology of basidiomycetes, mushroom cell walls, and the development of new materials using mycelium.
*Illustrative imageHow mushrooms degrade wood
White-rot fungi are the only organisms able to degrade the polymer lignin. Using methods such as disrupting many genes at once and CRISPR/Cas9, the lab aims to reveal the whole picture of how woody biomass is degraded.
*Illustrative imageMushroom science and technology
The lab studies how genes are expressed and how proteins are secreted in basidiomycetes. It has developed a safe genome editing method that does not count as genetic modification, and is also taking on challenges such as breeding strains that do not produce spores.
*Illustrative imageMushroom cell wall engineering
It has become clear that basidiomycetes and ascomycetes, though similar in form, differ considerably in structure, function, and signal transduction mechanisms. By clarifying how the mushroom cell wall exchanges substances and signals with the outside environment, the lab aims to establish a new field.
*Illustrative imageNew materials from mycelium
The mycelium of white-rot fungi is attracting attention as a source of new materials such as mushroom leather, packaging materials, and meat alternatives. Using genome engineering, the lab is developing materials with functions that natural fungi cannot provide, in collaboration with universities in Korea and elsewhere.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Forest Biochemistry Lab consist of faculty, secretaries, specially appointed researchers, international collaborative researchers, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students (including international students).
- ProfessorYoichi Honda
- Associate ProfessorMoriyuki Kawauchi
- Assistant ProfessorTakehito Nakazawa
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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: “Wood decay fungus” Sindugab / CC0 (cropped)
- How mushrooms degrade wood: “20210719 Pleurotus ostreatus 098-127” Zinnmann / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Mushroom science and technology: “Mottled (Inaequihymeniiferous) gills show the uneven maturation of spores” Timothy A. Peden / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Mushroom cell wall engineering: “Aureobasidium pullulans 44026” This image was created by user Tom Volk (TomVolk) at Mushroom Observer, a source for mycological images.You can contact this user here. / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- New materials from mycelium: “Mycelium objects at Genspace (75903)” Rhododendrites / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Forest Ecology Lab): “Smoke-filtered Sun on the Forest Canopy ( )” Forest Service - Northern Region / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Forest Biology Lab): “Sika Deer 30123652” belvedere04 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Forest Utilization Lab): “Dülmen, Kirchspiel, Bauerschaft Börnste” Dietmar Rabich / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Biomaterials Design Lab): “Beilstein - Schmidhausen - Hebelstraße - Holzzaun - Augen (1)” Roman Eisele / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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