Plants, which produce organic carbon compounds through photosynthesis, settle in one place unlike animals that roam in search of food. However, the sedentary lifestyle of plants presents another challenge for their survival due to the constant changes in their surroundings. Therefore, plants have developed adaptive mechanisms through lengthy evolutionary processes, resulting in unique growth and developmental characteristics. The Plant Development Genetics Lab has been investigating the genetic mechanisms that govern plant growth and development, using Arabidopsis thaliana, whose genome information was fully elucidated in the late 2000s. Specifically, we conduct biochemical, molecular genetic, and developmental biological studies aimed at understanding the mechanism behind floral induction in plants.

Every plant residing in its natural environment blooms during a specific season. This implies that plants can detect seasonal environmental shifts and, furthermore, possess a regulatory mechanism allowing them to flower under optimal environmental conditions. Plants also respond to environmental factors and only bloom once they have reached a certain reproductive age, similar to animals. Our lab is dedicated to unraveling various questions such as:

1. How do plants monitor their developmental status to reach reproductive maturity?
2. How do plants perceive seasonal changes in their surroundings, such as changes in light and temperature, to determine the timing of flowering?
3. What signals are conveyed to the shoot apical meristem following floral induction, and what subsequent physiological and genetic changes take place?

In particular, we are focusing on analyzing the complex gene regulatory networks that plants possess to precisely control the timing of flowering.