Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Zhenxia Su

Zhenxia Su, first author of Regulation of Female Germline Specification via Small RNA Mobility in Arabidopsis

Current Position: Postdoctoral scholar, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, China

Education: Ph.D., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Fujian Agriculture and forestry university, China; Master, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at South China Agricultural University

Non-scientific Interests: running and shopping

Brief bio: I started my Ph.D. at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) under the supervision of Prof. Yuan Qin and Prof. Xuemei Chen from Sep. 2013. In 2015, I participated in a joint training program and continued my Ph.D. studies in Xuemei Chen’s lab at University of California Riverside for one year supported by China Scholarship Council. After obtaining my Ph. D degree in 2017, I continued my postdoctoral research in Shenzhen University under the supervision of Prof. Xuemei Chen and Prof. Yuan Qin. I work on small RNA function in sexual plant reproduction, particularly female germline development. Through years of research, we have elucidated the mechanism by which TAS3–ARF3 regulates megaspore mother cell (MMC) specification. The results suggest that tasiR-ARFs repress ARF3 in these hypodermal cells to suppress ectopic MMC fate. Our findings uncover intricate spatial restriction of tasiR-ARF biogenesis, together with tasiR-ARF mobility, enables cell-cell communication in MMC differentiation.

 

姓名：苏珍霞

现在职位：深圳大学博士后

教育经历：福建农林大学博士；华南农业大学硕士

兴趣爱好：跑步，购物

个人简介： 2013年9月进入福建农林大学攻读博士学位，师从秦源教授和陈雪梅教授，从事小RNA调控植物有性生殖的功能研究，尤其是植物雌性生殖细胞的发育的相关工作。2015年，在国家留学基金委的资助下，作为联合培养博士生在加州大学河滨分校陈雪梅教授实验室完成为期一年的研究工作。2017年获得博士学位后，继续在陈雪梅教授和秦源教授的指导下在深圳大学开展博士后研究工作。

大孢子母细胞（MMC）的特化对植物雌性生殖系的发育和植株育性至关重要。拟南芥胚珠原基中有且仅有一个体细胞特化为MMC。通过多年的研究工作，我们揭示了TAS3–ARF3调控拟南芥大孢子母细胞特化的机制。我们的研究发现，在拟南芥胚珠原基中，TAS3 ta-siRNA特异地产生于胚珠的表层细胞，通过抑制ARF3在亚表层细胞中的表达来确保胚珠原基中仅形成一个MMC。