Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Feng Zhang

Feng Zhang, first author of Defective Vacuolar Proton Pump Enhances Aluminum Resistance in Arabidopsis

Current Position:  Assistant Professor at Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Education: PhD, State Key Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, friends, movies

Brief bio: I joined the Plant Molecular Biology and Nutrient Metabolism research group leading by Professor Wenzhi Lan in Nanjing University during my PhD candidate. In our research, by using research methods, such as plant molecular biotechnology,  plant genetic hybridization, plant morphology analyze, microphotography techniques, etc., we found that VHA-a2 and VHA -a3 are two key proton pumps that assist plant to adapt to aluminum toxicity in Arabidopsis thaliana under acidic environment. We concluded that the suppression of VHA-a2 and VHA -a3 activity accompanied by activating the proton pump and organic acid transporter activity at plasma membrane, which promoted the excretion of intracellular organic acid and protons, and it increased the cell detoxification mechanism. In the future, I plan to discover the further molecular mechanism on plant aluminum toxicity and nutrient absorption.

 

论文：Defective Vacuolar Proton Pump Enhances Aluminum Resistance in Arabidopsis

第一作者：张丰

目前职位：贵州中医药大学药学院助理教授（讲师）

教育经历：博士，毕业于南京大学生命科学学院医药生物技术国家重点实验室

兴趣爱好：阅读、交友和看电影

简介：在攻读博士学位期间，我加入了南京大学兰文智教授领导的植物分子生物学和营养代谢研究小组。利用植物分子遗传学、植物形态学、荧光化学、分析化学等方法，发现VHA-a2和VHA-a3是拟南芥适应酸化环境铝毒害的关键质子泵。揭示了其可抑制VHA-a2和VHA-a3的活性，以协调胞内有机酸和质子的外排，确认了液泡质子泵能调控质膜质子泵和有机酸转运体，来实现胞外解铝毒害这一机制。博士毕业以后，我打算更进一步研究植物铝毒害和其营养物质吸收关系之间的分子机理。