Hideki Takahashi

Research Interests

My research group is interested in studying the molecular mechanisms of the uptake and metabolism of nitrogen and sulfur in plants. Nitrate (NO₃^-), ammonium (NH₄⁺) and sulfate (SO₄^2-) are the major ionic forms of nitrogen and sulfur source readily used by plant root systems. However, nutrients are not always uniformly distributed or supplied in the soil as requested by plants.
Plants express specific forms of ion transporters and enzymes having catalytic activities favorable for the uptake and use of nutrients in the environment. They should also have these ion transporters and catalytic proteins expressed at ideal locations and timing to maximize the rate of nutrient assimilation. Besides increasing the capacities of transporters and enzymes, plants can modify their root architecture to make more efficient access to mineral nutrients available in the soil. The main goal of my research is to find how and what signals can regulate the uptake of nitrogen and sulfur and may control development of root systems architecture to better optimize nutrient use efficiency in plants. MORE

Representative Publications

Takahashi, H., Kopriva, S., Giordano, M., Saito, K., and Hell, R. (2011). Sulfur assimilation in photosynthetic organisms: Molecular functions and regulations of transporters and assimilatory enzymes. Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. 62, 157-184. Link to article

Lima JE, Kojima S, Takahashi H, von Wirén N. (2010) Ammonium triggers lateral root branching in Arabidopsis in an AMT1;3-dependent manner. Plant Cell 22, 3621-3633. Link to article

Yoshimoto N, Inoue E, Watanabe-Takahashi A, Saito K, Takahashi H. (2007) Post-transcriptional regulation of high-affinity sulfate transporters in Arabidopsis by sulfur nutrition. Plant Physiol. 145, 378-388. Link to article

Yuan L, Loqué D, Kojima S, Rauch S, Ishiyama K, Inoue E, Takahashi H, von Wirén N. (2007) The organization of high-affinity ammonium uptake in Arabidopsis roots depends on the spatial arrangement and biochemical properties of AMT1-type transporters. Plant Cell 19, 2636-2652. Link to article

Maruyama-Nakashita A, Nakamura Y, Tohge T, Saito K, Takahashi H. (2006) Arabidopsis SLIM1 is a central transcriptional regulator of plant sulfur response and metabolism. Plant Cell 18, 3235-3251. Link to article

Kataoka T, Watanabe-Takahashi A, Hayashi N, Ohnishi M, Mimura T, Buchner P, Hawkesford MJ, Yamaya T, Takahashi H. (2004) Vacuolar sulfate transporters are essential determinants controlling internal distribution of sulfate in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 16, 2693-2704.Link to article

More Publications by Hideki Takahashi can be found at ResearcherID.com, http://www.researcherid.com/rid/D-4531-2009.