RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science Gene Discovery Research Group
Group Director: Kazuo Shinozaki (D.Sci.)
Research Summary

Our group is discovering plant genes of which functions are linked to quantitative improvements in plants and those with new functions for minimizing the effects of the environmental stresses to achieve maximum productivity. Other targets of research include not only genes that respond to environmental changes and stimuli and adaptation but also genes involved in photosynthesis and productions of useful metabolites. Our group explores key genes involved in improved productivity and abiotic stress tolerance based on genomics including transcriptome and metabolome analyses, and are analyzing regulatory factors and signaling factors involved in the control of gene expression in response to abiotic environmental stresses. We also explore genes involved in metabolic regulation for the improvement plant productivity.
Main Research Fields
- Biology
Related Research Fields
- Agricultural Sciences
Keywords
- Environmental stress
- Biomass
- Reverse genetics
- Comparative genomics
Selected Publications
- 1.
Maruyama K, Urano K, Kusano M, Sakurai T, Takasaki H, Kishimoto M, Yoshiwara K, Kobayashi M, Kojima M, Sakakibara H, Saito K, Shinozaki K.:
"Metabolite/phytohormone-gene regulatory networks in soybean organs under dehydration conditions revealed by integration analysis
Plant J, 103 197-211 (2020) - 2.
Kidokoro S, Kim J S, Ishikawa T, Suzuki T, Shinozaki K, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K.:
"DREB1A/CBF3 is repressed by transgene-induced DNA methylation in the Arabidopsis ice1-1 mutant"
Plant Cell, (2020) - 3.
Takahashi F, Shinozaki K.:
"Long-distance signaling in plant stress response."
Curr Opin Plant Biol. 47:106-111 (2019) - 4.
Sato H, Takasaki H, Takahashi F, Suzuki T, Iuchi S, Mitsuda N, Ohme-Takagi M, Ikeda M, Seo M;
"Arabidopsis thaliana NGATHA1 transcription factor induces ABA biosynthesis by activating NCED3 gene during dehydration stress"
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 115 E11178-E11187 (2018) - 5.
Fujita M, Tanabata T, Urano K, Kikuchi S, Shinozaki K.:
"A Plant Phenotyping System for Quantitative Evaluation of Growth under Controlled Environmental Stress Conditions"
Plant Cell Physiol, 59 2030-2038 (2018) - 6.
Kuromori, T., Seo, M.and Shinozaki, K.:
" ABA Transport and Plant Water Stress Responses"
Trends Plant Sci, 23 513-522 (2018) - 7.
Takahashi, F., Suzuki, T., Osakabe, Y., Betsuyaku, S., Kondo, Y., Dohmae, N., Fukuda, H.,
Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K.and Shinozaki, K.:
"A small peptide modulates stomatal control via abscisic acid in long-distance signalling,"
Nature,556 235-238 (2018) - 8.
Kim, J. S., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K. and Shinozaki, K.:
"ER-Anchored Transcription Factors bZIP17 and bZIP28 Regulate Root Elongation."
Plant Physiol,176 2221-2230 (2018) - 9.
Selvaraj, M. G., Ishizaki, T., Valencia, M., Ogawa, S., Dedicova, B., Ogata, T., Yoshiwara, K., Maruyama, K., Kusano, M., Saito, K., Takahashi, F., Shinozaki, K., Nakashima, K.,Ishitani, M.:
"Overexpression of an Arabidopsis thaliana galactinol synthase gene improves drought tolerance in transgenic rice and increased grain yield in the field.
Plant Biotechnol J, 15, 1465-1477 (2017) - 10.
Urano, K., Maruyama, K., Jikumaru, Y., Kamiya, Y., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K. and Shinozaki,K.:
" Analysis of plant hormone profiles in response to moderate dehydration stress."
The Plant journal, 90, 17-36 (2017)
Recent Research Results
May 17, 2018
Plant peptide spells relief from salty stressApr. 4, 2017
New rice fights off droughtMay 1, 2015
Plants' control complexFeb. 20, 2015
Sun safety for plantsJan. 5, 2015
How vitamin C helps plants beat the sunAug. 22, 2014
Peering into plant cellsApr. 25, 2014
Interrogating a messenger of plant stressDec. 13, 2013
A model grass gets its genomic profileAug. 2, 2013
Untangling the plant drought responseMay 10, 2013
Tiny genes orchestrate plant shapeMay 2, 2013
Fine-tuning plant growth
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Kazuo Shinozaki
- Group Director
Core members
- Takashi Kuromori
- Senior Research Scientist
- Miki Fujita
- Research Scientist
- Fuminori Takahashi
- Research Scientist
- Kaoru Urano
- Research Scientist
- June-Sik Kim
- Research Scientist
- Yukiko Kamide
- Technical Staff I
- Saho Mizukado
- Technical Staff II
- Eriko Sugimoto
- Technical Staff II
- Saya Kikuchi
- Technical Staff II
- Fuyuko Shimoda
- Technical Staff II
Contact Information
314 Research Building (2nd Phase),
3-1-1 Koyadai,
Tsukuba, Ibaraki,
305-0074 Japan
2F S201 Sustainable Resource Science Building,
2-1 Hirosawa,
Wako, Saitama,
351-0198 Japan
Tel:
Tsukuba +81-(0)29-836-4359
Wako +81-(0)48-467-9449
Fax:
Tsukuba +81-(0)29-836-9060
Wako +81-(0)48-462-4617
Email: kazuo.shinozaki [at] riken.jp