Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Peitong Wang

Peitong Wang, first author of Arsentate Induced CHLOROSIS 1/ TRANSLOCON at the outer envelope membrane of CHLOROPLASTS 132 Protects Chloroplasts from Arsenic Toxicity

Current Position: PhD student. State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

Education: B.S. in Agricultural resources and environment, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, traveling, running

Brief bio: After I graduated with a B.S. degree, I entered Professor Fang-Jie Zhao’s group and started my PhD study in 2013. My project aims to explore the mechanisms of arsenate tolerance in rice and Arabidopsis. By screening for arsenate tolerant mutants in rice, I found that the phosphate transporter, OsPht1;8, plays an important role in arsenate uptake and tolerance in rice. Recently, I used forward genetic approach and found some genes involved in alleviating arsenic toxicity in the chloroplasts of Arabidopsis; one of the genes (TOC132) is reported in the Plant Physiology paper. I came to Professor Jian Feng Ma’s lab in Okayama University, Japan, in 2017 as a joint PhD student, and continue to work on arsenic tolerance mechanisms in rice.