Current Position: Graduate student in Hong-Quan Yang’s lab, National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai , China
Education: B.S (2004) in the College of Biological Sciences at China Agricultural University, Beijing
Non-scientific Interests: travelling, cooking and shopping
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take biological sciences as my first option and final major in China Agricultural University. During my undergraduate studies, I had the chance to conduct real biological experiments. It was my good luck to become a member of Dr. Hong-Quan Yang’s lab in the Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, in the fall of 2004. Dr. Yang’s lab is interested in light-controlled, (especially blue light-regulated) physiological responses and signaling networks. It was demonstrated in our previous report that the blue light photoreceptor CRY and the downstream negative regulator COP1 are involved in light-triggered stomatal opening (Mao et al., 2005). During the last three years, my work has been focused on light regulation of stomatal differentiation and development through characterizing the stomatal phenotypes of the mutants deficient in the multiple photoreceptors and the downstream signaling components. It is fortunate that a series of intrinsic factors have been recently discovered, which allows us to be able to test the genetic interaction between the light signaling system and these factors. In future studies, it will be worth investigating the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying the crosstalk between light signaling and intrinsic signaling pathways.