Plants are always threatened by pathogen attack and have evolved defense mechanisms to protect themselves. However, defense responses have a high cost to plants and cannot always be activated. Therefore, plants have acquired a system to memorize attacks from pathogens and efficiently activate defense responses when the risk of infection is high (priming of plant immunity). I am studying epigenetic regulation such as chromatin structural changes involved in the memory of infection stimuli.

Soil microorganisms have a variety of effects on plant growth. We have found that soil used in organic agriculture has a disease suppressive effect. We consider that the microbial diversity in organic agriculture is important for disease suppression, and we are trying to develop disease control methods using microbial populations cultivated from soil.

Plasma is the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid, and gas, and can be thought of as an “ionized gas. Plasma generates reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species, which are also known as signal factors for plant immunity. Therefore, in collaboration with the Graduate School of Engineering, we are trying to develop a method to activate plant immunity using plasma technology.