Missions

Transcription factors are a general term for proteins involved in transcription in vivo, and DNA-binding transcription factors that retain DNA-binding domains play a central role in transcriptional regulatory networks, and their functions are be extremely important in cells. Comprehensive analysis of which gene neighborhoods in the genome these transcription factors bind to and which genes they are involved in regulating is critical to the analysis and understanding of transcriptional regulatory networks.
　Our laboratory aims to comprehensively and multidimensionally analyze the functions of DNA-binding transcription factors using bioinformatics technology to comprehensively understand the regulatory mechanisms of gene expression in cells.

Proteins form their own three-dimensional structures and dynamically change their structures to perform their functions. Therefore, information on the three-dimensional structure (i.e. coordinates of atoms that make up the protein molecule) is important to elucidate the mechanisms of various protein functions. Recently, AlphaFold2, an AI program that accurately predicts protein structures from amino acid sequence information (Jumper J. et al. Nature 596, 583-589 (2021)), has been developed, facilitating access to 3D structural information of unknown proteins.
　Our laboratory aims to logically understand complex and diverse protein-mediated biological phenomena through the construction of models that explain the functions of proteins based on their structural information, making full use of bioinformatics and AI technologies.

Microorganisms form unique communities in the natural environment. This community is called the microflora, and its composition changes dynamically depending on various environmental factors, time of year, and location. In recent years, many researchers have taken the approach of attempting to understand biological phenomena through comprehensive analysis of the microflora.
　Based on the vast amount of DNA sequence information reflecting the microflora of plant soils, this laboratory is searching for unknown relationships between plants and microorganisms, aiming for a comprehensive understanding of plant-microbe interactions.

Recent improvements in DNA sequencing technology have made it relatively easy to identify the genomic structure of unknown microorganisms. By comparing microorganisms in the environment at the genome level, more detailed microbial population structure can be revealed.
　Our laboratory utilizes the long-read sequencer MinION to identify and compare the genomic structures of various unknown microorganisms in order to elucidate the role of microorganisms in the environment from their genomic information.