Lab description

The Obata Lab is investigating the regulation of plant primary metabolism to answer two fundamental questions.

1. How does plant metabolism respond to environmental inputs?

   Plants need to adjust their metabolism to maintain their performance under fluctuating environments. Metabolomics approach and metabolic flux analysis are employed to dissect how plant metabolism changes in response to environmental inputs and how these changes contribute to plant performance i.e. growth, resilience and yield.

2. How is the plant metabolic network regulated in molecular level?

   Currently known molecular mechanisms cannot fully explain the regulation of plant metabolism. We are trying to elucidate the roles of transient enzyme protein complex (called “metabolon”) on the control of metabolic network and to apply it for metabolic engineering.

Kewords:

plant primary metabolism, metabolomics, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), metabolic flux analysis, abiotic stress, plant resilience, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, multi-enzyme complex, metabolite channeling