Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Yonghong Li

Yonghong Li, first author of OHP1, OHP2, and HCF244 form a transient functional complex with the photosystem II reaction center

Current Position: PhD candidate in Developmental Biology at the Key Laboratory of Photobiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Education: M.S from School of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, exercising, traveling and movies.

Brief bio: During my master’s degree at the Capital Normal University in the laboratory of Prof. Yikun He, I studied nitric oxide signal regulation using the model organism Physcomitrella patens. Because I was interested in scientific research I decided to do science by starting my PhD thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Lianwei Peng at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. During this time, I gained a wide expertise in molecular genetics, biochemistry, proteomics, spectroscopy, etc. My main research was focused on finding and characterizing new factors involved in the biogenesis of photosynthetic complexes or in photosynthetic regulation. This approach proved to be successful. Through forward and reverse genetics, we found several genes involved in photosynthesis and discovered that OHP1 and OHP2 are involved in PSII assembly. Currently, I am in the final stages of my doctoral thesis and I will graduate in December 2018. I plan to continue to do biological research and I wish to widen my expertise and knowledge in the biological sciences.