Kai-Chun Peng: Plant Physiology First Author

Kai-Chun Peng, first author of “FAR-RED INSENSITIVE 219 and phytochrome B co-repress shade avoidance via modulating nuclear speckle formation”

Current Position:

Ph.D. candidate, Institute of Plant Biology, College of Life Science, Nation Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

Education:

Ph.D. candidate in Plant Biology, National Taiwan University; B.Sc. in Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University

Non-scientific Interests: Badminton, Photography, and Hiking

Brief biography:

I joined Prof. Hsu-Liang Hsieh’s lab to pursue a Ph.D. degree in plant science at National Taiwan University in 2014. My research is specifically focused on the regulation between the jasmonic and light signaling pathways in Arabidopsis. Then I got interested in the growth-defense tradeoffs under a shading environment, which is a dilemma in most plant species. We characterized a novel regulation that FIN219/JAR1 and phyB co-repress the shade avoidance response via modulating the phyB-mediated nuclear speckle formation, and it depends on the abundance of jasmonic acid. In the future, we are dedicated to uncovering the detailed mechanism of JA-triggered nuclear speckle formation, which remains largely unknown.