Associate Professor Department of Biosciences Faculty of Science and Engineering Teikyo University

After completing his doctoral course Graduate School of Tokyo in 2012, he became a specially appointed researcher at the Biotechnology Research Center, the University of Tokyo. Since 2013, he has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Teikyo University and a part-time Senior Assistant Professor at Shibaura Institute of Faculty of Science and Engineering, before becoming a Senior Assistant Professor in Department of Biosciences, Teikyo University in 2018 and Associate Professor in 2024. At the same time, additional post as Associate Professor at the Teikyo University Center for Advanced Instrumentation and Analysis. He is engaged in plant chemistry research, focusing on rice.

I am researching "rice." Plants found all over the world are not only important as food, but some also have various pharmacological effects and are indispensable to human beings. A wide variety of research is being conducted, but research on plants that provide food for humans is particularly emphasized in all countries. Among them, rice has attracted so much attention that it has formed a huge research network on its own, such as the formation of an international consortium to decipher the genome. One of the reasons for this is that the world's three major grains, rice, wheat, and corn, are all members of the grass family. Rice is the staple food in Japan, so rice is very important, and rice research originating in Japan has led the world.

It is said that it has been more than 100 years since rice began to be studied from a genetic perspective around the world. In 1904, artificial crossbreeding, which is important for improving varieties, was carried out on rice. At the same time, the Haber-Bosch process made it possible to produce chemical fertilizers, which was a major event for agriculture in general. It made mass production of grain possible. After the Industrial Revolution, agricultural mechanization progressed and agricultural methods were innovated. Farmland expanded around the world, and the use of grasses became more widespread. At the same time, the number of cases of disease outbreaks and damage from pests increased. For example, in rice, the well-known disease "rice blast disease" is caused by infection with a fungus called the rice blast fungus. It is a pathogen that has existed since ancient times, and once it occurs, it causes poor growth of rice and affects rice yields. It is one of the diseases that must be dealt with in rice cultivation because it is prone to large-scale infection due to cool summers and long rains. There are also various other diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria. The development of disease-resistant rice is essential to solving humanity's food problems.

My research theme can be summed up in one word: "rice survival ability." I am researching how rice develops resistance to external environmental conditions such as high and low temperatures, dryness, pests, and the invasion of other plants. In modern times, as climate change progresses due to global warming, a wide range of research is being conducted, including resistance to floods and temperatures, and growth in high carbon dioxide environments. Particular attention is being paid to high temperature resistance. The importance of our existence as researchers, who respond to ever-changing environmental challenges and provide support for solving food problems, is increasing day by day.

Through this research, I aim to contribute to a stable supply of rice. Plants cannot move from where they have taken root. However, the environment surrounding plants changes with the seasons and climate change, and they must constantly fight against predators and pathogens that are everywhere. By studying the genes and chemicals that plants use to defend themselves, I hope to clarify how plants can become stronger, increase production, and become more resistant. The original species of rice, which is said to have originated in China, looks nothing like the present. It did not bear many grains, the rice was black, and the rice grains had developed thorns called awns. Modern rice is the result of human breeding over a long period of time. A single rice plant can produce thousands of grains of rice, and the rice grains have almost no thorns. Rice has achieved unprecedented prosperity through human hands. This is the result of the need for new adaptations to the changing environment. These changes in rice also contain clues to our research. In addition to investigating the functions of various genes and chemicals, we also carefully observe how the rice changes when the temperature, humidity, and other environmental conditions are changed in a small greenhouse. We also bring rice plants into the laboratory to analyze their genes and disease resistance. Ultimately, our research will lead to the development of agricultural techniques such as disease prevention and the stimulation of breeding improvements.

In recent years, we have been using genetic information from many plants, including rice. The basis of our research is plants that are used as model organisms. Arabidopsis thaliana is a prime example. Although it is not an edible plant, it is used in basic plant research around the world because it has a fast generation turnover, is easy to grow, has a wide variety of mutant strains, and is easy to examine the function of its genes. Research is also progressing on grains other than rice. We actively exchange information with various researchers and collect information from literature to incorporate genetic information that can be applied to rice. In some cases, we can see the predicted gene function from the results of other plants, but conversely, we can get completely different results than expected.

For example, plants synthesize their own antibacterial substances to protect themselves from pathogens. Recently, it has been discovered that the intensity of light in rice plants affects the amount of antibacterial substances produced. Rice plants not only grow poorly in dark places, but are also prone to disease. We wondered if the genes necessary to produce antibacterial substances were not functioning properly in the dark, and when we investigated, we found that they were functioning without any problems. We thought that the trigger of light controlled the function of the genes necessary to produce antibacterial substances, but we were wrong. In that case, we must look for other targets that are affected by light. For example, various factors such as temperature, which is affected by sunlight, other genes that we have not paid attention to until now, and even other environmental factors are possible. It is possible that several factors combine to become a trigger under certain conditions, so we need to investigate each one of them. Rice plants have tens of thousands of genes, so we will need to conduct a huge investigation into how each gene acts in response to various external factors. This kind of steady research deepens our knowledge.

We believe that our research will have a positive impact on a wide range of areas of the SDGs. Food issues are a global issue, and they support employment for many people, and they span a wide range of areas, including the economy and culture. It is a field that uses all of science, chemistry, and engineering, and while it covers the microscopic world of DNA and the workings of genes, it also has a macroscopic aspect of being at the forefront of responding to climate change. In particular, cutting-edge research is becoming an essential element in dealing with a climate that is changing at such a rapid pace. Since we humans cannot survive without food, the importance of grains, which provide most of our calories, is of course high, and at the same time, attention is being paid to aspects that can affect the global environment, such as carbon fixation through photosynthesis in plants, and it is expected that research will continue to progress.

There is no doubt that the understanding of how various genes work in the aspects of rice growth and environmental adaptation has led to more efficient and accurate ecological analysis and breeding. On the other hand, there is a minimum amount of time required for plant growth and it cannot be shortened. However, various research, such as core plant genetic research, is progressing simultaneously around the world, making it possible to accelerate understanding. What is required to solve the SDGs is to go beyond differences in position and environment, to share resources beyond all boundaries for a single theme, and to show a path to a solution. Plant research, which originally focused on the vegetation of each region, is now a global research network that has accumulated wisdom more quickly than ever before, leading to new research and results for solving problems. There are many problems comparable to food in the world, but I don't think there is anything that our field can do that other fields can't. I feel that the global cooperation system visible in research on plants, including rice, is full of hints for solving the SDGs.