It’s announced that 16 teams from different institutions of Yunnan province have been listed as Innovation Teams of Yunnan 2014. The research team of molecular mechanism of interactions between plants and environmental factors led by Prof. YU Diqiu of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) is included in the list.

Prof. Yu Diqiu is principal investigator of the team, with participation of Prof. Chen Jianghua and  other 10 researchers.

YU Diqiu’s major research interests include the regulatory roles of WRKY proteins in stress responses, and the functions of microRNAs in stress responses. Over the past ten years, he conducted innovative studies to investigate the molecular mechanisms of WRKYs-mediated signaling pathways in response to various environmental stresses. He also made achievements in analyzing the regulatory roles of microRNA and phytohormones (e.g. Jasmonate) to mediate stress responses. He has made his research results published in such top academic journals as PNAS, Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, Plant Journal, etc.

CHEN Jianghua’s research interests focus on functional genomics and molecular marker assisted breeding in legume and rice, and the signal transduction mechanism of legume leaf movement. His studies have been published in in top academic journals of PNAS, Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, etc.

The researchers will focus on the interactions between plants and environmental stress factors. Specifically, they will reveal the molecular mechanisms of 1) how plants adopt to multiple stress conditions (e.g. drought, heat and cold) at the same time; 2) how multiple signals or proteins coordinate to modulate various stress responses; 3) how plants balance growth or development and stress tolerance. Based on this program, the researchers are expected to reveal several signaling pathways about plant and environmental stress interactions, which will give a favor for understanding those interactions.