In order to cope with the world’s growing food crisis and exacerbated environmental destruction, breeding environmentally stress-tolerant crops become increasingly important. Genetic engineering is a fast and precise means of improving plant tolerance to environmental stresses such as drought, salt loading, and freezing. We pioneered in isolating various stress-inducible genes for genetic engineering of stress-tolerant model plants, and will further search for novel genes and promoters with cutting edge technologies based on genome research findings. Now the basic research comes at the development stage of genetic engineering of agriculturally important crops with stress tolerance. We believe that both basic and applied research helps global efforts for environmental conservation and sustainable crop productivity in the world including developing countries and regions.

Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology
Department of Applied Biological Chemistry
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences
The University of Tokyo