Microorganisms in the sediment

Temperature, pressure and other factors make collecting live fish and other multicellular organisms from the deep sea extremely difficult. Microorganisms are too small to be seen by the naked eye, which makes collection by current methods impossible. How then can deep-sea organisms be researched? We focus first on the sediment accumulated on the deep seafloor.

Genetic analysis

Genetic analysis is essential to know more about the nature of organisms collected from the deep sea. Sediment and other deep-sea resources contain many unknown organisms.

Discovering and classifying such new organisms contributes greatly to clarifying biodiversity.

Using an organism’s innate abilities

A microorganism's reproductive ability can be used to produce large amounts of the "usable substance protein" essential to our lives.

For substances that cannot be made by microorganisms, model organisms such as Zebrafish are used.

Does it have the target utility?

If usable protein can be made in this way, we must investigate whether it actually has the target utility we seek. Methods including HPLC have attained many kinds of results.

Thermostable Agarase...

Pseduozyma enables discovery of new biosurfactant...

First laboratory breeding in the world!

Controlling the balance of pressure and temperature has made the collection of "live" deep-sea organisms possible in recent years. We also succeeded in the world's first laboratory breeding of several organisms!

Predicting ecology

In the deep sea, long term observation of deep-sea organisms is nearly impossible. However, research to predict unknown ecology can take place when animals are raised long-term in a laboratory.

Deep-sea fish Psychrolutidae: spawning and early development...

We discovered that in the blackness of the deep sea, parent fish protect their eggs!

Cells that contain new abilities

An individual organism is a treasure chest of resources. More specifically, cells that contain characteristics to withstand extreme environments can be produced from deep-sea organisms and microorganisms can be collected from their surfaces.

Microorganism environment on the surface of a deep-sea organism...

Cells produce new cell lines with a limitless ability to multiply under pressure and various other culture conditions. Generating those new cell lines provide us a wide variety of possibilities, including using them as hosts to produce deep sea usable substances.

Outgrowths of deep-sea organism origin – Pressurized raising environment/culture flasks...

Discovery of foreign gene (fluorescent protein)/successful production of protein... Aim for mass production of human protein!

Using fish cells to produce target proteins...