Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Jing Wang

Jing Wang, first author of AnnAt1 and AnnAt2 regulate Arabidopsis primary root growth in response to sugar

Current Position:  Ph.D candidate in University of Texas

Education: Master of Science in Shandong University, China

Non-scientific Interests:  Cooking, hiking and traveling

Brief bio: Sugar serves as carbon sources, energy suppliers and signals just like plant hormones to regulate plant growth and development. Emerging studies in sugar signaling and the interaction of sugar with a wide range of plant hormones capture people’s eyes. However, I believe that with in-depth understanding of sugar transport in plants, the regulatory roles of sugar on plant physiology and gene network can be better studied with high accuracy in specific cell types. My current work focuses on long distant transport of sugar in the context of shoot and root communication. With a balance between post-phloem transport of sugar in root tips and photosynthesis, annexin genes facilitate plasmodesmal diffusion of sugar to affect sugar status in root tips. With studies of sugar transporters in the future, a full map of sugar transport in plants would be revealed making engineered crops possible.