Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Peiyan Guan

Peiyan Guan, first author of SENSITIVE to SALT1, An ER-localized Chaperone, Positively Regulates Salt Resistance in Arabidopsis

Current Position: Lecturer, Biology Department, Dezhou College, Dezhou, China

Education: PhD in Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, China

Non-scientific Interests: reading, music, travelling

Brief bio: During my college (Shandong Agricultural University, SDAU), I was very interested in biological science. To extend my horizons in this field, I became a graduate student (recommended) of SDAU in 2012. I studied microbiology for the first two years in Dr. Zhengyou Yang’s lab, and then I joined in the lab of Dr. Chengchao Zheng to study biochemistry and molecular biology. The encouraging and cooperative atmosphere of Zheng’s group allows me to explore my research focused on cloning the functional genes involved in plant abiotic stresses resistance. We identified and characterized a novel Arabidopsis mutant (sensitive to salt1, ses1) through genetic screening. Functional disruption of SES1 markedly aggravates salt-induced ER stress. Moreover, we found SES1 was also involved in heat stress resistance. Currently, I am trying to figure out the molecular details of SES1 in this process and to identify target proteins that SES1 helps to fold in ER.