Lab of Plant Abiotic Stress Response

The impact of abiotic stress on the yield of the world's major crops exceeds 50%, making the enhancement of crop stress tolerance an effective strategy to ensure food security. The main scientific question of interest is how plants balance growth and abiotic stress responses. Natural variations exist in the growth and its response to abiotic stress within and between plant species. Delineating these differences and dissecting the underlying mechanisms will help improve crop productivity. Our research projects are generally divided into two directions. On one hand, we study the evolution and genetics of plants/crops that adapt to harsh environments (aka naturally stress-resistant plants); on the other hand, we use the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana to study how abiotic stress affects cellular energy status and subsequent signaling events. In particular, we study the function of protein acetylation in linking primary metabolism and abiotic stress response and translational regulation in heat stress response.