| Career Summary |
1979: Graduated, Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo
1984: Doctor of Agriculture from The University of Tokyo
1984: Research Scientist, National Institute of Agrobiological Resources
1987: Visiting Investigator, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
1989: Senior Research Scientist, National Institute of Agrobiological Resources
1995: Head of Laboratory, National Institute of Agrobiological Resources
1999: Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo
2004: Professor, The University of Tokyo
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| Educational Activities |
Graduate School: Microbe vs Non-microbe Interactions, Bioresource Technology
Undergraduate School: Exercise for Molecular Biological Experiments (Faculty of Agriculture)
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| Research Activities |
Molecular analysis of interactions among plants, microbes and insects:
We are attempting to elucidate the complex interactions between plants, plant-infecting microbes and microbe-transmissible and plant-eating insects at the molecular level.
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Literature
1) Suzuki, Oshima, Kakizawa, Arashida, Jung, Yamaji, Nishigawa, Ugaki and Namba: Interaction between the membrane protein of a pathogen and insect microfilament complex determines insect-vector specificity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 103, pp. 4252-4257, 2006.
2) Oshima, Kakizawa, Nishigawa, Jung, Wei, Suzuki, Arashida, Nakata, Miyata, Ugaki and Namba: Reductive evolution suggested from the complete genome sequence of a plant-pathogenic phytoplasma. Nature Genetics Vol. 36, pp. 27-29, 2004.
3) Ugaki, Ueda, Timmermans, Vieira, Elliston and Messing: Replication of a geminivirus derived shuttle vector in maize endosperm cells. Nucleic Acids Research, Vol. 19, pp. 371-377, 1991.
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| Other Activities |
The Phytopathological Society of Japan
The American Phytopathological Society
The Molecular Biology Society of Japan
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| Future Plan |
We are focusing on the biology of plant DNA viruses, their host plants and their vector insects. By using molecular and cellular approaches, and from an evolutionary point-of-view, we expect to be able to elucidate the natural history of their complex interactions. The information obtained from these studies will contribute not only to widening our understanding of nature but also to solving global problems such as plant disease control and food security.
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| Messages to Students |
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I hope that you will try to be a scientist, which I believe is a sacred profession. We human beings depend upon global resources, both concrete (such as food and energy) and abstract (such as philosophy), to live our lives. Politicians and businessmen can "redistribute" the current resources, but only scientists can "create and increase" them.
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