Zizhen Liang: The Plant Cell First Author

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Zizhen Liang, first author of “Electron tomography of prolamellar bodies and their transformation into grana thylakoids in cryofixed Arabidopsis cotyledons”

Current Position: Post-doctoral Research Associate, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Education: Ph.D. in Botany, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University

Non-scientific Interests: History and Sports

Brief bio:

After earning my Ph.D. from Beijing Normal University, I joined Dr. Byung-Ho Kang’s group at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to study organelle dynamics in plant cells with advanced electron microscopy tools.

Thylakoid development is essential for plastids to become photosynthetically active. Our previous study investigated the course of thylakoid biogenesis in the proplastid-to-chloroplast transition in Arabidopsis (Liang et al. 2018, Plant Cell). When a seed germinated in the dark, proplastids transform into etioplasts instead of chloroplasts. These developmentally arrested plastids accumulate the semi-crystalline tubular membrane networks known as prolamellar bodies (PLB) for storing materials for constructing thylakoid membranes when light becomes available. We adopted scanning transmission electron tomography and cryofixation in the current study to determine the PLB structure close to its native state. We proved that the PLB lattice in Arabidopsis is a cubic diamond-type and elucidated structural steps in the light-induced thylakoid biogenesis from PLBs. Our results also indicate functional divergence among CURT1 proteins.

姓名：梁子臻

目前职位：香港中文大学，博士后副研究员

教育背景：北京师范大学，植物学博士

兴趣爱好：历史，体育

个人简介：在北京师范大学获得博士学位后，我加入了香港中文大学Byung-Ho Kang教授实验室利用前沿的电子显微镜技术进行植物细胞亚细胞结构动态的研究。类囊体的发育对于植物细胞获得光合能力至关重要。在之前的研究中，我们利用拟南芥为模式生物阐释了前质体是如何发育成为叶绿体的（Liang et al. 2018, Plant Cell）。然而，在缺乏光照的条件下，质体将转而发育为黄化体。黄化体是内膜以半晶体管状网络结构为结构特征的一种质体，该结构也被称为原片层体（PLB）。当植物重新获得光照以后，PLB将会继续发育成为类囊体。在本研究中，我们利用高压冷冻固定技术在接近自然的状态下保存了拟南芥的黄化子叶，并且利用扫描透射电镜技术分析了其原片层体的结构组成和其转化为类囊体的过程中发生的结构变化。我们发现，拟南芥中的PLB三维管状结构为立方金刚石状。在进一步通过对突变体和转基因遗传标记株系的研究中我们发现CURT1蛋白家族在PLB向类囊体结构转化过程中发挥重要作用。本研究揭示了在植物中天然存在晶体结构的多样性以及CURT1蛋白家族的功能多性。