Cell biology of Plant Transition Elements
Team name
Cell biology of Plant Transition Elements
Principal Investigator
Research Objectives
Fertilizer, as an important agricultural means of production, is the key to ensure food security. Although many achievements have been made in developing efficient fertilizers and fertilization strategies, the low absorption and utilization efficiency of nutrients in fertilizers by plants remains a major obstacle to fertilizer application and agricultural green transition. Researchers has generally acknowledged that standard soil fertilization strategies are often notvery efficient due to immobilization in the soil and losses of nutrients by leachingor volatilization. Foliar fertilization offers an attractive supplementary strategy in enhancing plant productivity. For more than half a century,water-soluble trivalent rare earth elements [REE(III)], such as lanthanum [La(III)], cerium [Ce(III)] and terbium [Tb(III)], have been widely included in foliar fertilizers because REE(III) locally applied on leaves improves the growth and productivity of the whole plants. Nowadays, foliar application of mineral nutrients enhances crop plants yield by 15–19%, however, most mineral nutrients (about 70%) in the fertilizer are still lost and cannot be absorbed and utilized by plants. It is known that a comprehensive understanding of how foliar mineral nutrients enter leaf cells is crucial for improving the absorption and utilization efficiency of nutrients in foliar fertilizers, in particular a dynamically tracking the uptake process of nutrients is necessary. Therefore, based on the dynamic capture and quantitative study of plant cell behavior of exogenous transition elements in plants, our group will reveal the ways and mechanisms of plant cells absorbing and transporting exogenous transition elements (rare earth elements) and other mineral nutrients, and develop new technologies for plants to efficiently absorb and utilize mineral nutrients.
The main research directions are as follows:
l Dynamic capture and quantitative study on plant cell behavior of exogenous transition elements in plants
l The mechanism of absorption and transportation of exogenous transition elements (rare earth elements) and other mineral nutrients by plant cells
l Developing new technologies for plants to efficiently absorb and utilize mineral nutrients
Team members
l Lihong Wang, Ph.D. in environmental ecology, postdoctoral research ofchemical biology of plant transition elements,associate professor, dynamic capture and quantitative study on plant cell behavior of exogenous transition elements (rare earth elements)in plants.
l Mengzhu Cheng, Ph.D. inchemical biology of transition elements, postdoctoral research ofcell biology of plant transition elements,research associate, the mechanism of absorption and transportation of exogenous transition elements (rare earth elements) and other mineral nutrients by plant cells, including in developing new technologies for plants to efficiently absorb and utilize mineral nutrient.
Yue Ben, Ph.Din bioinorganic chemistry, research associate, toexploremechanism of homeostasis changes of mineral nutrients in leaf cells induced by exogenousrare earthelements
