Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Ailing Yu

Ailing Yu, co-first author of Photosynthetic Phosphoribulokinase Structures: Enzymatic Mechanisms and the Redox Regulation of the Calvin-Benson-Bassham Cycle

Current Position: Ph.D. candidate in National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Education: B.S. in School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology

Non-scientific interests: reading, travelling and taekwondo

Brief bio: I’ve been deeply attracted by biology since I was an undergraduate. The process plants transform sunlight into sugar is especially fascinating for it provides energy to organisms on land. Systematical training began from I joined the lab of Professors Wenrui Chang and Mei Li. During my PhD research, I have managed studying botany from the point of structural biology, commonly using X-ray crystallographic and cryo-electron microscopic methods. My research focused on solving the protein structures involved in photosynthesis, explaining reaction and regulation mechanisms. During photosynthesis, light signal is transformed into redox signal in light reaction to control proteins of Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle (CBB cycle). The effector proteins alter their conformation or even reversibly form heterologous complex to respond to the redox signal. I solved the structures of enzymes and complex that play important roles in the CBB cycle. Our study would advance the understanding of the redox signaling regulation for the CBB cycle.

 

姓名：于爱玲

职位：博士研究生，中国科学院生物物理研究所，中国北京，常文瑞研究员和李梅研究员实验室

学历：华南理工大学生物科学与工程学院学士

非科学兴趣：阅读、旅行、跆拳道

简介：我从读大学的时候就对生命科学十分感兴趣。植物将捕获的光能转换为糖类的过程为陆地上所有高等生物提供了能量来源，这一过程非常重要也很有趣。加入到常文瑞和李梅教授的实验室之后，我便开始从事光合作用相关领域的研究。在我读博期间，我学习了X射线晶体学和冷冻电镜技术，学会用结构生物学的方式和角度来思考、解决植物学方面的问题。我的研究方向为：通过解析光合作用相关的蛋白质结构，分析蛋白发挥功能和受到调控的机制。光反应阶段中，光信号通过一系列反应被转换为氧化还原信号，氧化还原信号再去调控卡尔文循环的蛋白，受调控的蛋白接收信号之后会发生结构变化，或再与其它蛋白相互作用形成复合物。我着重于解析对卡尔文循环过程具有重要作用的酶及复合物的结构。我们的研究为大家理解氧化还原信号调控卡尔文循环的机制提供了帮助。