RIKEN BioResource Research Center (BRC®) Microbe Division (RIKEN JCM)
Division Director: Moriya Ohkuma (Ph.D.)
Research Summary
 The Microbe Division in RIKEN-BRC has been collecting, preserving, standardizing, and distributing cultured microbial strains since established as Japan Collection of Microorganisms (JCM) in 1981. Our mission is to contribute to scientific communities in a variety of research fields by maintaining and serving high-quality microbial resources useful for general microbial studies and researches related to environmental and human health issues. As a research and development laboratory, we are also working to continuously improve our function as a microbial resource center, to develop new microbial resources, to describe novel microbial taxa, and to investigate microbial communities and yet-uncultured microorganisms.
Main Research Fields
- Microbiology
 
Related Research Fields
- Biology & Biochemistry
 - Molecular Biology & Genetics
 - Agricultural Sciences
 - Environment & Ecology
 
Research Subjects
- Collection, preservation, quality control, and distribution of microbial strains
 - Development of microbial resources for environmental and health researches
 - Isolation and characterization of new microbial strains
 - Studies on microbial communities and yet-uncultured microorganisms
 
Selected Publications
- 1.
Sakamoto, M., Hisatomi, A., and Ohkuma, M.:
"Isolation and characterization of a novel Waltera species and reclassification of Brotolimicola acetigignens Hitch et al. 2022 as Waltera acetigignens comb. nov."
Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 74: 006381 (2024) - 2.
Hashimoto A, Shibata S, Hirooka Y, Ohkuma M.:
"Phylogenetic and morphological re-evaluation of Camptophora"
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 117: 109 (2024) - 3.
Iino, T., Oshima, K., Hattori, M., Ohkuma, M., and Amachi, S.:
"Iron corrosion concomitant with nitrate reduction by Iodidimonas nitroreducens sp. nov. isolated from iodide-rich brine associated with natural gas"
Front. Microbiol. 14: 1232866 (2023) - 4.
Kato, S., Ogasawara, A., Itoh, T., Sakai, H., Shimizu, M., Yuki, M., Kaneko, M., Takashina, T., and Ohkuma, M.:
"Nanobdella aerobiophila gen. nov., sp. nov., a thermoacidophilic, obligate ectosymbiotic archaeon, and proposal of Nanobdellaceae fam. nov., Nanobdellales ord. nov. and Nanobdellia class. nov."
Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 72: 005489 (2022) - 5.
Kinjo, Y., Bourguignon, T., Hongoh, Y., Lo, N., Tokuda, G., and Ohkuma, M.:
"Coevolution of metabolic pathways in blattodea and their Blattabacterium endosymbionts, and comparisons with other insect-bacteria symbioses"
Microbiol. Spectr. 10: 02779-22 (2022) - 6.	
Sakai, H., Nur, N., Kato, S., Yuki, M., Shimizu, M., Itoh, T., Ohkuma, M., Suwanto, A., and Kurosawa, N.:
"Insight into the symbiotic lifestyle of DPANN archaea revealed by cultivation and genome analyses"
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 119: e2115449119 (2022) - 7.	
Endoh, R., Horiyama, M., and Ohkuma, M.:
"D-Fructose assimilation and fermentation by yeasts belonging to saccharomycetes: rediscovery of universal phenotypes and elucidation of fructophilic behaviors in Ambrosiozyma platypodis and Cyberlindnera americana"
Microorganisms 9: 758 (2021) - 8.	
Kato, S. and Ohkuma, M.:
"A single bacterium capable of oxidation and reduction of iron at circumneutral pH"
Microbiol. Spectr. 9: 00161-21 (2021) - 9.	
Nishimura, Y., Otagiri, M., Yuki, M., Shimizu, M., Inoue, J., Moriya, S., and Ohkuma, M.:
"Division of functional roles for termite gut protists revealed by single-cell transcriptomes"
ISME J. 14: 2449-2460 (2020) - 10.
Ikeyama, N., Murakami, T., Toyoda, A., Mori, H., Iino, T., Ohkuma, M., and Sakamoto, M.:
"Microbial interaction between the succinate‐utilizing bacterium Phascolarctobacterium faecium and the gut commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron"
MicrobiologyOpen 9: e1111 (2020) 
Recent Research Results
			Sep. 4, 2015
Symbiotic bacterium in termite gut pinned down
			
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Moriya Ohkuma
 - Division Director
 
Core members
- Toshiya Iida
 - Senior Research Scientist
 - Mitsuo Sakamoto
 - Senior Research Scientist
 - Takao Iino
 - Senior Research Scientist
 - Shingo Kato
 - Senior Research Scientist
 - Rikiya Endo
 - Research Scientist
 - Akira Hashimoto
 - Research Scientist
 - Yumi Oshida
 - Expert Technician
 - Atsushi Hisatomi
 - Postdoctoral Researcher
 - Arisa Nishihara
 - Postdoctoral Researcher
 - Takashi Itoh
 - Special Temporary Research Scientist
 - Michiru Shimizu
 - Technical Staff I
 - Kouji Suzu
 - Technical Staff II
 - Yoko Morishita
 - Technical Staff II
 - Hiroyuki Sakai
 - Special Postdoctoral Researcher
 - Yuya Tsukamoto
 - JSPS PD Researcher
 
Contact Information
 3-1-1 Koyadai
 Tsukuba, Ibaraki
 305-0074 Japan
Email: mohkuma@riken.jp
