Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Fangming Wu

Fangming Wu, first author of Mediator Subunit MED25 Couples Alternative Splicing of JAZ Genes with Fine Tuning Jasmonate Signaling

Current Position: Assistant Professor, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Education: Ph.D. in Beijing Normal University / National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China

Non-scientific Interests: traveling, movies

Brief bio: I received my Ph.D degree at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, and then joined the laboratory of Prof. Chuanyou Li to start my postdoctoral study at Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. I have been focusing on the transcriptional regulation of jasmonate (JA) signaling pathway and JA-mediated plant defense responses.

In this project, we investigated the mechanistic function of MED25 in regulating Jas intron-dependent alternative splicing (AS) of JAZ gens. We found that JA-induced production of dominant JAZ splice variants depends on the functions of MYC2 and MED25. Using affinity purification and mass spectrometry, we found that PRE-mRNA-PROCESSING PROTEIN 39a (PRP39a) and PRP40a, two subunits of the evolutionarily conserved spliceosomal U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle (snRNP) involved in cotranscriptional AS, are components of MED25-MYC2 functional Complex (MMC). We demonstrated that MED25 controls JA-induced recruitment of PRP39a and PRP40a to JAZ loci to facilitate the full splicing of Jas intron. Therefore, the MED25-PRP39a/PRP40a module plays a critical role in preventing JAZ splice variants-mediated excessive desensitization of JA signaling. This study exemplifies how a Mediator subunit integrates the effects of general splicing factors into a specific signaling pathway to accurately control gene expression.

I am now an assistant Professor in Prof. Chuanyou Li’s lab. In future, I would focus on studying JA-mediated plant immunity to necrotrophic pathogens using tomato-Botrytis cinerea interaction as a model experimental system.

姓名：吴芳明

当前职位：中科院遗传与发育生物学研究所，助理研究员

教育经历：2007-2012，北京师范大学/北京生命科学研究所，生物化学与分子生物学专业，博士；

兴趣爱好：旅行、看电影

个人简介：2012年从北京生命科学研究所毕业之后，我有幸加入中国科学院遗传与发育生物学研究所李传友研究员课题组进行我的博士后研究。我的课题主要围绕茉莉酸信号通路核心转录因子MYC2与共激活子MED25组成的功能复合体如何激活下游抗性响应基因表达的分子机制开展研究。

在本研究中，我们发现了拟南芥MED25一方面与MYC2组成功能复合体正向调控了ΔPYJAZ的表达，从而避免茉莉酸信号的过度激活；另一方面，为防止过量产生的ΔPYJAZ抑制茉莉酸信号的有效激活，MED25招募剪切因子PRP39和PRP40并与之形成一个功能模块促进JAZ基因的完全剪接，降低ΔPYJAZ的表达水平，有效地激活了茉莉酸信号通路。因此，我们的工作发现了MED25作为茉莉酸信号激活过程中最关键的共激活子，以一种高度协调的方式通过转录及转录后水平精确控制茉莉酸信号的激活。我们的研究拓宽了人们对植物Mediator作用机制的认识。

目前，我是李传友老师实验室的助理研究员，未来的工作将以番茄和灰霉病致病菌Botrytis cinerea的互作为模式研究茉莉酸介导的植物对腐生型病原菌的防御机制。