- JST Home
- /
- Strategic Basic Research Programs
- /
- ACT-X
- /
- Research Director/
- Environments and Biotechnology/
- [Environments and Biotechnology] Year Started : 2020
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences
Nagoya University
Plant inflorescence morphology is the most important factor affecting crop productivity. However, the mechanism of the plasticity of inflorescence morphology under environmental stress condition is largely unknown. In this project, I will elucidate the molecular basis of the diversity of inflorescence morphology and the plasticity of inflorescence morphology which changes in response to environmental stress by molecular genetic techniques using wild Oryza collections. Understanding these mechanisms will help us to design the inflorescence architecture that shows resilience to environmental changes for food stability.
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology
Osaka University
In order to realize a sustainable society, there is a growing need to discover and utilize functional metabolites and their producing enzyme genes from unused microorganisms. In this study, we will develop an information analysis platform for estimating the structure of unidentified compounds and the function of unknown genes by integrating untargeted metabolome and whole genome data of microorganisms.
Associate Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
National Institute of Technology (Kosen), Kure College
The vast majority of microorganisms in the environment cannot be isolated. There are many factors that prevent isolation. One thing is certain, human technology has not even established a tactic for “acquiring targeted bacteria from the environment” yet. The proposed research aims to establish a gene-targeted, arbitrary microbial isolation technology (i.e., a technology to isolate targeted bacteria) based on genome editing.
Researcher
Center for Sustainable Resource Science
Riken
Plant pathogenic fungi complete their infection utilizing virulence factors that suppress plant immunity. However, it has been difficult to identify virulence factors by conventional methods likely due to the redundancy of virulence factors. In this study, I will identify virulence factors of plant pathogenic fungi and their target factors in host plants using a newly developed experimental system that allows multiple gene disruptions both in a pathogenic fungus and its host plant. The expected findings of this study will contribute to disease-resistance breeding of crops and the development of pesticides with low environmental impact.
Assistant Professor (Specially appointed)
Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science
Okayama University
Crops acquire tolerance to various environmental stresses such as insect damage, strong winds, and soil mineral deficiencies etc. by taking up silicon from soil. Therefore, the function of silicic acid transporter, which are responsible for silicon uptake, is directly related to grain yield, but the transport mechanism is poorly understood. In this project, I will elucidate the structure of crop silicic acid transporter at the atomic level. Based on the obtained structural information, I will analyze the function of the mutants to elucidate the silicic acid transport mechanism.
Research Scientist
Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research
RIKEN
Living cells are dynamical systems with even their spontaneous internal dynamics. Therefore, the realization and control of arbitrary cellular states essentially require feedback controls. In this study, I will attempt to realize new feedback control systems for the cell state of bacteria, yeast, and cultured cells, respectively, using an automatic culture system. These contribute to the creation of innovative automated technologies that dynamically control and stabilize the cell state through external manipulation.
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
The University of Tokyo
Free fatty acids (FFA), essential substrates for membrane lipids and cellular storage compounds, differ broadly in terms of lengths, unsaturations, and the cis/trans moieties. I have discovered that different FFA compounds have different effects on the repair and damage of photosystem II (PSII). My research aims to design advanced FFA to externally control photosynthetic activity by changing its sensitivity to photoinhibition. I will model the effects of FFA on the photoinhibition of PSII by taking advantage of the diversity of FFA and the proteomic analysis of lipid-modified proteins.
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Engineering
Kobe University
Technological developments for achieving highly sensitive and selective detection of analytes such as hormones, lipids, amino acids, proteins, virus and cells, are of great importance in the field of life sciences. The aim of this project is to develop synthetic polymer-based nano-interfaces in which both molecular recognition elements for capturing virus and fluorescent signaling molecules for readout of the binding events are integrated for ultra-sensitively detecting virus. This technology could diagnose viral infections more precisely, facilitating the understanding on virus-related phenomena.
Assistant Professor
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute
The University of Tokyo
Coral reefs only occupy 0.1% of the area of the sea but harbor approximately 25% of all marine species. Therefore, they are extremely important ecosystems for the conservation of biodiversity. However, many species of corals are on the verge of extinction because of increasing anthropogenic disturbances, including global warming. The mass bleaching events of coral reefs triggered by rising ocean temperature have been increasing over the last few decades, causing reef degradation on a global scale. In this project, I propose the concept of ecoprobiotics that preserves the coral reef ecosystems by the abilities of microorganisms, and aim to create innovative breeding methods using microbiome engineering that save coral reefs of the world.
Researcher
Institute of Crop Science (NICS)
National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO)
This project aims to reveal the molecular genetic mechanisms of inbreeding depression using common buckwheat, an outcrossing crop. Using the inbred lines of buckwheat, I will attempt to develop a quantitative evaluation system of inbreeding depression traits, identify the genetic loci, and reveal the molecular mechanism by methylome/transcriptome analysis. These research results could contribute to creating new, environmentally adapted crops that avoid inbreeding weaknesses.
Senior Scientist
Center for Sustainable Resource Science
RIKEN
Why is it that different organisms may have enzymes that catalyze the same reaction but have different genetic backgrounds and/or kinetic parameters? This study focuses on the Km value, a kinetic parameter that indicates the affinity between the enzyme and the substrate and will answer this question by applying an evaluation method used in catalytic chemistry. Furthermore, we aim to apply the findings to provide guidelines for designing enzymes suitable for chemical production systems.
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology
Osaka University
Redesign of the metabolic network in cells is essential to developing useful cells for the eco-friendly production of numerous compounds, including fuels and drugs. However, cells’ metabolic systems are complicated and elusive since several thousands of proteins that have each role in maintaining life are involved in cells. Besides, the proteins’ activities are strictly regulated by other proteins, metabolites, and external factors. By pursuing this project, we will apply protein engineering and genome-scale modeling to rational metabolic pathway design for the potential practical use of cell factories for our society in the future. Additionally, we aim to add an artificial cell metabolic pathway by the proteins from different organisms and viruses and de novo proteins to expand bioproduction capability.
Specially Appointed Research Scientist
Bioproduction Research Institute
Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
In order to achieve sustainable agricultural production, it is urgent to establish an environmentally friendly control method of plant diseases. This project will conduct research that will lead to the establishment of a new environment friendly control measure of soil borne diseases based on microbiota control, which was suggested by focusing on the mode of soil borne diseases development. In particular, this study aims to obtain basic knowledge on artificial control of soil microbiota using microbial isolates, which is necessary for the establishment of a new environment friendly control method of soil borne diseases.
Researcher
AIST-Waseda University Comptational Bio Big-Data Open Innovation Laboratory
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Viruses are biologically classified as non-living organisms but are the most prevalent on Earth in terms of populations. Our understanding of phage diversity and classification is still limited although the importance of the bacteriophages has been advocated in a variety of environments, including the aquatic environment. Hence, this project aims to develop a technology for single-virus genome sequencing with droplet microfluidics. This project will expand the virus genome database by obtaining high-throughput and high-accuracy genome sequences on virus particles in the aquatic environment. Furthermore, this project will reveal “how often” “what kinds of viruses” infect “what kinds of bacteria” by acquiring the draft genomes of the host microbiomes as well.
Research Associate
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences
The University of Tokyo
As is often with bacteria, fungi are infected with viruses called mycoviruses. The aim of this study is to establish methods for development of fungal secondary metabolism using viral genome. I will search for viruses or their genes, which promote fungal secondary metabolism, using a model fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. Then, I will utilize such viral factors for search for new natural products, and for efficient production of industrially important fungal secondary metabolites.
Assistant Professor
Institute of Innovative Research
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Cyanobacteria, the oxygen-generating photosynthetic bacteria, uniquely contains sulfated extracellular polysaccharides among bacteria. In a model cyanobacterium, I have revealed the sulfated polysaccharide-dependent biofilm formation and biosynthesis and regulation genes of the sulfated polysaccharide synthesis and regulation in a model cyanobacteria specie. Based on this finding and other reports, I hypothesized that sulfated polysaccharides probably play important roles in the formation and function of various cyanobacterial biofilms in nature. In this study, I will establish transformation systems and analysis methods for some cyanobacterial species including non-model ones, that accumulate polysaccharide sulfate, to reveal the functions of the polysaccharides in cyanobacterial biofilm.
Assistant Professor
College of Science and Engineering
Kanazawa University
In the research field of biotechnology, an analysis technique for visualizing biological samples in liquid with molecular-scale resolution has been strongly demanded to understand the structures and functions of biological samples at the molecular level for development of new biological functions and expansion of applied technologies using biotechnology. In this research, I develop a super-resolution atomic force microscopy in liquid with an atomically controlled AFM tip with a diameter of 0.4 nm to establish the measurement technique for visualizing surface and inside of unstained biological samples in liquid with subnanometer-scale resolution.
Researcher
Quantum Beam Science Research Directorate
National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology
We aim to establish the efficient cultivation system that can recover the input energy for crop cultivation as a harvest by controlling the photosynthate translocation inside the plant and concentrating the translocation to edible parts. In this study, to obtain the fundamental knowledge, we will use positron emitting tracer imaging system to visualize the movement of nutrient elements inside the plant and challenge to clarify how genes expressed in specific tissues and organs function to regulate translocation throughout the plant.
Project Researcher
National Institute of Genetics
Research Organization of Information and Systems
The seeds of many wild plant species exhibit deep seed dormancy. Despite the presence of harmful microorganisms in the soil, the dormant seeds can survive for a long time without decay. However, the defense mechanism against microbial attack in seeds is still unclear. In this study, I will clarify the genetic factors and plant molecules involved in the suppression of microbial invasion and infection of seeds, using wild Oryza as a model. The findings of this research can be applied to improve the quality and long-term storage of crop seeds by taking advantage of the potential of wild plant genetic resources.
Designated Assistant Professor
Institute for Advanced Study
Kyoto University
Plant-derived small molecules are used for medicinal drugs and building blocks of chemical synthesis. Therefore, controlling complex plant biosynthesis would be an innovative technology for a sustainable materials production. In this project, we develop a novel chemical-based technology that induces in vivo protein polymerization leading to control of biosynthesis.
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Engineering
Nagoya University
Polymeric wastes such as plastics and rubber accumulate in the natural environment for long periods. Biocatalytic (enzymatic) decomposition has been the focus of attention as an environmentally friendly way to recycle polymeric materials, but the degradation is extremely low. This study aims to improve the rate of degradation of polymeric materials that are solid substrates, by assembling enzymes.
Researcher
Graduate School of Agriculture
Osaka Metropolitan University
Root parasitic weeds, which are causing devastating damage to agricultural production all over the world, germinate by sensing strigolactones (SLs) produced by and released from roots of host plants. The structures of SLs are diverse, and the germination inducing activity of SLs against each root parasitic weed differs depending on its structure. This project aims to create root parasitic weed resistant crops by modifying SLs originally produced by a particular crop to SLs with low germination inducing activity against root parasitic weeds that are infested to that crop through elucidating the SL biosynthesis mechanism in host crops.