Plant Immunity Research Group

Understanding plant immunity mechanisms and developing sustainable disease resistant crops

Group Director

Ken Shirasu Ph.D.

1993: Ph.D., University of California, Davis, USA
1993: Postdoctoral Fellow, Salk Institute / Noble Foundation, USA
1996: Research Scientist, Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Centre, UK
2000: Group Leader, Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Centre, UK
2006: Group Director, Plant Immunity Research Group, RIKEN Plant Science Center
2008: Adjunct Professor, University of Tokyo
2013: Group Director, Plant Immunity Research Group, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (-current)
2020: Deputy Director, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (-Current)

Main Research Fields :	Biology
Related Research Fields :	Agricultural Sciences
Keywords :	Plant Immunity / Plant-Microbe Interactions / Genomics / Plant Chemical Biology / Signal Transduction
Strategic Program :	Symbiosis and Environment

Outline

Our group’s ultimate goal is to fully describe functions of genes, proteins and small molecular compounds that are essential for immunity in plants. As the first step, we focus on the regulatory mechanism of immunity by studying dynamics of resistance signaling complexes and protein modifications that control defense responses. In addition, we plan to identify novel genes involved in plant immunity by isolating defense mutants in model plants. We also aim to isolate small molecule compounds involved in disease resistance.

Subjects

To understand mechanisms for plant immunity
To identify small molecules to regulate plant immunity and characterize their targets
To isolate novel genes/metabolites for pathogen virulence
To identify useful microbes from rhizosphere to promote plant immunity and growthimages/lab.jpg

Strawberry anthracnose disease caused by Colletotrichum fungi: Anthracnose disease in A. Strawberry Leaves, B. Strawberry, C. Strawberry leaves by microscope

Molecular Biology of parasitic plant Striga: The damage caused by the parasitic plant Striga is a serious problem in Africa. We initiated genomic studies of Striga.