Yan-Qiu Tan: The Plant Cell First Author

Yan-Qiu Tan, co-first author of “ Multiple cyclic nucleotide-gated channels function as ABA-activated Ca²⁺ channels required for ABA-induced stomata closure in Arabidopsis.”

Current Position: Research assistant

Education:  Ph.D. in Botany from CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS) and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS).

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, Music

Brief bio: I joined Prof. Yong-Fei Wang’s group at CEMPS since 2011. My research is mainly focused on the characterization of the main Ca²⁺ channels required for important biological processes, including the regulation of stomatal movements and polar growth of plant cells. I have successfully revealed that three CNGC members (CNGC5, CNGC6 and CNGC9) are involved in polar growth of root hairs by regulating cytosolic Ca²⁺ gradients in Arabidopsis root hair tips. That work was published in another journal about two years ago. In this research, I generated three dominant negative (DN) transgenic Arabidopsis lines, and observed strong ABA-insensitive phenotypes of stomatal movement and transpirational water loss. These phenotypes observed in the DN lines suggest that CNGC channels are required for ABA regulation of stomatal movement and transpirational water loss. Thus I further generated a number of transgenic Arabidopsis lines by expressing the GUS encoding gene under the promoters of CNGC family members, and revealed the highly expression of five CNGCs in Arabidopsis guard cells, namely CNGC2, CNGC5, CNGC6, CNGC9, and CNGC12. Based on this data, I further generated a CNGC quadruple mutant cngc5-1cngc6-2cngc9-1cngc12-1 (c5/6/9/12), the complemented lines of the quadruple mutant and overexpression lines in wild type background, and observed strong ABA insensitive phenotypes of stomatal movement and transpirational water loss in the quadruple mutant, similar to that of the three DN lines. I and my collaborators further conducted a number of experiments, and eventually revealed that multiple CNGCs, mainly including CNGC5, CNGC6, CNGC9, and CNGC12, constituted a type of ABA-activated Ca²⁺ channels, which were involved in ABA regulation of stomatal movement and transpiration water loss by mediating external Ca²⁺ influx and regulating ABA-specific cytosolic Ca²⁺ signature in guard cells. I believe that our findings opened a door for many other studies to expand our understandings about the underlying molecular mechanisms of upstream stimulus-specific cytosolic Ca²⁺ signaling in plant cells.

发表论文：Multiple cyclic nucleotide-gated channels function as ABA-activated Ca²⁺ channels required for ABA-induced stomata closure in Arabidopsis

姓名：谭艳秋

目前职位：助理研究员

教育背景：中国科学院分子植物科学卓越创新中心，博士毕业生

兴趣爱好：阅读、音乐

个人简历： 我自2011开始加入中国科学院分子植物科学卓越创新中心王永飞课题组攻读研究生，博士毕业后以助研身份继续在该团队承担Ca²⁺信号相关研究工作。我的研究方向主要是植物重要生物学过程中所需的主要Ca²⁺通道的鉴定和机理研究，包括Ca²⁺对气孔运动和细胞极性生长的调节机制解析。前期工作中，我曾成功地鉴定并揭示了三个CNGC家族成员（CNGC5、CNGC6和CNGC9）通过调节拟南芥根毛顶端Ca²⁺浓度梯度的动态变化参与根毛的极性生长，这项工作已在2年前发表在另一个学术期刊上。在本研究中，我首先构建了三个CNGC显性抑制的拟南芥转基因株系，并发现它们具有气孔运动和叶片失水等对ABA不敏感的显著植物表型。该数据表明，多个CNGC通道是ABA调节气孔运动和蒸腾水分散失所必需的关键组分。通过构建全部CNGC家族启动子驱动GUS基因表达的拟南芥转基因株系，我最终发现五个在拟南芥气孔保卫细胞中高表达的多个CNGC，即CNGC2、CNGC5、CNGC6、CNGC9和CNGC12。基于该数据，我进一步构建了CNGC家族四突变体cngc5-1cngc6-2cngc9-1cngc12-1（c5/6/9/12），并在四突变体中观察到了与显性抑制株系类似的气孔运动和蒸腾失水对ABA不敏感的表型。我和我的合作者进一步进行了大量实验，最终发现多个CNGCs，主要包括CNGC5、CNGC6、CNGC9和CNGC12，共同组成了一种ABA激活的Ca²⁺通道，该Ca²⁺通道通过介导胞外Ca²⁺内流和调节ABA特异性的细胞质Ca²⁺信号，参与ABA对气孔运动和蒸腾失水过程的调控。我相信，我们的发现为植物细胞质Ca²⁺信号调控机理的研究打开了一扇门，将助力很多其他关于植物细胞Ca²⁺信号的研究取得进展，有利于快速拓展我们对上游信号特异性植物细胞质Ca²⁺信号的发生和动态调控分子机理的理解。