Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Mingda Luan

Mingda Luan, first author of Vacuolar phosphate transporters contribute to systemic Pi homeostasis vital for reproductive development in Arabidopsis

Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow at Northwest University

Education: PhD, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

Non-scientific Interests: Table tennis, running, movies, travelling

Brief bio:  I was trained in plant molecular biology and nutrient metabolism by Professor Sheng Luan during my PhD at the Nanjing University, China. At the beginning, I worked with Dr. Jinlong Liu in Luan’s lab to investigate the function of Vacuolar Phosphate Transporter1 (VPT1), the first identified transport protein that facilitates vacuolar Pi sequestration. With the solid and intriguing experimental data of VPT1, I was inspired to further detect functions of the other VPT family members. I found both  VPT1 and VPT3 are responsible for vacuolar Pi influx transport. Unexpectedly, the vpt1 vpt3 double mutant displays impaired reproductive development under sufficient Pi condition. While analyzing this interesting phenotype, I defined the role of vacuolar phosphate transporters in systemic Pi allocation, which is vital for reproduction in plants. Now, after getting my PhD, I have the chance to continue to investigate the VPTs in Sheng Luan’s lab. I plan to uncover the regulation network of vacuolar Pi transport, with the hope of finding the mystery of  how the vacuole maintains Pi homeostasis in plant for crop benefits.