Abstract

Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. P deficiency is becoming one of the most limiting factors for crop productivity. It has been discovered that vascular tissue-mediated systemic signaling plays important roles in plant responses to P deficient growth conditions. In my laboratory, Plantago major has been used as a model species to study the transcriptomic alterations in vascular tissues due to the ease of vascular tissue collection from this species. Multiple genes associated with the function of sucrose phloem metabolisms have been discovered to be important in adapting plant to the low P stress. In addition, my lab has used translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) to identify differentially expressed genes enriched in the phloem under low P. Two phloem specifically expressed genes, AtERF and AtROXY, have been found to participate in the P homeostasis by regulating root architecture. The insights from our studies offer promising strategies for the production of crops with increased P uptake efficiency.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Zhang is an Associate Professor in plant physiology in the Dept of Agronomy at Purdue University. He received his BS in Biology from Henan University in China, MS in Plant Biochemistry from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, PhD in Horticultural Molecular Physiology from Auburn University in the US. Prior to joining to Purdue, he was a postdoc scientist at Cornell University and studied how carbohydrates are exported from the leaves. At Purdue, he expanded his interest from carbohydrate phloem loading to the shoot-to-root communication in response to abiotic growth environment. Crops involved in his research include soybean, rice, wheat, tomato, poplar tree, alfalfa, and potato.