International award honors discovery that plants smell danger and warn their neighbors within minutes.
The 9th Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award was presented to Professor Masatsugu Toyota of Saitama University on November 27, 2025, at Nagoya University. The international honor recognizes Professor Toyota’s research on how plants sense and respond to touch and chemical signals. The award ceremony took place during the 11th International Symposium on Transformative Bio-Molecules.
The Okazaki Award, established in 2015, honors early-career scientists who make significant contributions to biology through innovative approaches or transformative technologies.
Professor Toyota was born in Marugame, Kagawa Prefecture, the only son in a family with four sisters. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a physicist. He graduated from Nagoya University’s Department of Physics before moving to the Graduate School of Medicine to pursue his PhD in medical science.
His mentor, Professor Sokabe Masahiro, introduced him to plant science and encouraged him to build custom research equipment. This shaped his unique research approach that combines physics with biology.
How plants warn their leaves and their neighbors
Professor Toyota’s most important discovery involves glutamate receptor channels—proteins found in both human brains and plants. In humans, they help us learn and remember. “We also have a glutamate receptor channel in the brain, and plants have these same proteins that they use to sense insect attacks,” he said.
When an insect bites a leaf, these channels trigger calcium signals that move through the plant at one millimeter per second. This alerts distant leaves to prepare their defenses. Professor Toyota’s work with the carnivorous plant, Venus flytrap, and the sensitive plant, Mimosa pudica, shows that plants can move and protect themselves in surprisingly sophisticated ways.
Calcium waves move through an Arabidopsis plant being attacked by a caterpillar at nearly one millimeter per second. The bright fluorescence reveals the plant’s rapid communication system responding to a threat, similar to how nerve signals work in animals. Credit: Toyota et al., 2018
Real-time calcium signals in Dionaea muscipula (Venus flytrap) responding to ants on its leaves. The green glow shows calcium signals moving through the plant as it senses the insects and reveals how plants transmit danger signals throughout their bodies. Credit: Suda et al., 2025
Mimosa pudica leaves fold within seconds of being wounded. This rapid defensive movement is triggered by electrical and calcium signals that travel through the plant and protect it from further insect damage. Credit: Hagihara et al., 2022
He also discovered that plants “smell” danger through airborne chemicals released by damaged neighbors and prepare their own defenses before an attack occurs. These findings challenge the traditional view of plants as passive organisms and reveal advanced sensory networks that rival animal nervous systems.
Professor Toyota’s unique background in biophysics allows him to build custom microscopes and imaging systems that show plant behavior invisible to the naked eye.
“If you don’t have a device, you can make it,” he said, explaining his approach to research challenges. His centrifuge microscope and other inventions have opened new windows into the lives of plants.
Professor Toyota’s work has important implications for agriculture, specifically the development of biostimulants—chemicals that protect plants by activating their natural defenses rather than killing insects.
“We are creating new types of biostimulants to protect plants and these aren’t pesticides, so this method solves the problem of insects becoming resistant to traditional pesticides,” he explained.
His research demonstrates that plants possess rapid communication systems that coordinate complex responses across their entire structure, despite their lack of nerves or brains.
Honoring accomplished scientists—past and present
The award commemorates the legacy of Professors Tsuneko and Reiji Okazaki, who discovered “Okazaki fragments,” short DNA segments that form during cell replication. Their breakthrough work in the 1960s solved a fundamental mystery about how cells copy genetic information.
Past recipients of the Okazaki Award include distinguished scientists from institutions such as MIT, Stanford University, Princeton University, and the University of Zurich.
Nagoya University faculty members, including those from the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM), select recipients through a rigorous review process that evaluates both scientific achievement and future potential in the field of biology.
When asked about the secret to his success, Professor Toyota emphasized curiosity and persistence. “You should keep your curiosity from childhood,” he advised young scientists. Rather than seeing obstacles as roadblocks, he views them as opportunities. “I’m always very happy to face limitations or problems, because this is when big discoveries happen,” he said.
