Environmental Response Research Unit

Outline

Potassium is one of major nutrients for plant growth, and lack of it has entailed increased use of fertilizers. However, increased fertilizer usage does not result in comparable production increase, and excess fertilizer run-off creates soil pollution. Growing ecological awareness necessitates new solutions to increase agricultural production without endangering the environment, and achieve food security via sustainable agriculture. As solutions to these issues, we aim to elucidate the components of plant potassium sensing and deficiency signaling in Arabidopsis using various approaches. In parallel, we are using a marine red macroalga, Pyropia yezoensis (susabinori) in order to understand the mechanisms that enable seaweeds to survive in salty condition and to compare these mechanisms with those of the land plant Arabidopsis thaliana in terms of Na+/K+ homeostasis. In addition, to establish a new method of phytoremediation, chemical screenings to elucidate the chemicals which affect cesium and heavy metals uptake in plants were conducted and the characterization of selected chemicals are on-going using multidisciplinary approaches. As an extension, the roles of these selected chemicals for the removal of unwanted metals contamination are studying. We are also intensively elucidating regulatory components of unwanted metals uptake that selectively inhibit/suppress/prevent uptake of metals from contaminated soil.

Subjects

1. Dissection of signaling cascades in plant response to nutrient deprivation
2. Improvement of plant nutrient use efficiency in response to nutrient limitation
3. Understanding of marine macroalgae life in the marine environment
4. Establishment of remediation methods for land contaminated with unwanted metals using plants and chemical compounds