BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:iCalendar-Ruby BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Seminar DESCRIPTION:Yong-Ling Ruan\nProfessor\, School of Environmental and Life Sc iences (Biological Sciences)\nThe University of Newcastle\, Australia \n\nB iography\n\nProfessor Yong-Ling Ruan focuses his research on identifying ge netic bottlenecks that limit nutrient resource allocation to\, and utilizat ion within\, major organs for improving plant fitness\, fertility and food and fibre production.\n\nYong-Ling is a member of ARC College of Experts\, editor of Molecular Plant and Director of Australia-China Research Centre f or Crop Improvement at UON.\n\nHe aims to: \n\n(i) El ucidate mechanisms by which sugar metabolism & transport regulate plant dev elopment\;\n\n(ii) Identify regulatory genes & signals that control carbon nutrient distribution\;\n\n(iii) Dissect molecular networks underpinning re source partitioning during evolution & domestication\;\n\n(iv) Develop nove l solutions to improve crop productivity & tolerance to heat\, cold & droug ht.\n\nProf Ruan has led his team to a sustained success with research find ings and insights published in top journals such as Plant Cell\, Molecular Plant\, Plant Physiology\, Plant Journal\, Nature Genetics and PNAS. He is the leading and /or senior author for ~85% of all his publications\, refle cting the major role he played in the work and his high weight to the citat ions of his papers. \n\nHis group has:\n\n(1) Identified genetic bottleneck s limiting nutrient input into meristematic organs and established a “Ready -Set- Grow” model that provides novel insights into the control of seed & f ruit set or their abortion\;\n\n(2) Discovered critical roles of invertase- mediated sugar metabolism & signalling in establishing male & female ferti lity & fiber cell patterning or growth\; \n\n(3) Demonstrated that elevatio n of endogenous invertase activity improves leaf longevity & seed yield & c onfers heat tolerance for fruit set\, while enhancing the expression of Sus gene increased cotton fibre yield\;\n\n(4) Uncovered (a) roles of plasmode smatal (PD) gating & coordinated expression of carriers for sugars and K+ i n cell elongation and (b) the requirement of sterol homeostasis for maintai ning PD function for cell-to-cell communication\;\n\n(5) Discovered evoluti on models of acid and alkaline invertases\, in which CWINs were co-evolved with seed plants\, whereas cytosolic invertases were steady & evolved under strong purifying selection\, for good reasons. \n\nThe quality an d impact of Prof Ruan's research has been internationally recognized as evi denced by\, for example\, having written multiple invited articles for worl d renowned Annual Review of Plant Biology and Trends in Plant Science\, ran ked first and second\, respectively\, among all 220+ Plant Biology journals . He has organized and/ or chaired many international conferences/ symposia and given invited talks worldwide. He was awarded Peter Goldacre Medal fro m Australian Society of Plant Scientists in 2005 and Distinguished Young Sc ientist Award from NSFC in 2004. \n\nHe currently serves on editorial board s of five international journals including Molecular Plant\, a top journal in Plant Science (IF 8.8\, 2016). He holds an adjunct Chair Professorship a t Zhejiang University. \n\nKey research expertise:\n\nPlant Molecular Cell Biology\, Plant Physiology\, Gene Technology and Genetic Engineering. \n\nS ome highlights from the Ruan lab:\n\n• Discovered contrasting evolutionary models between acid and alkaline invertase genes. The cytoplasmic invertase (CIN\, the alkaline invertase) had undergone strong purifying selection an d remained very stable during evolution\, probably reflecting its critical role for cellular function and viability. Cell wall invertase (CWIN) was e volved from vacuolar invertase (VIN) during the formation of vascular plant s\, likely as a functional component for phloem unloading (Wan et al 2018 T rends in Plant Sci). \n\n• Novel discovery that sterol homeostasis is e ssential for the opening of plasmodesmata (PD) by degrading callose in the neck region of PD and shutdown PD activates the expression of both energy-d ependent and -independent sucrose transporters for cell growth (Ruan*\, Zh ang* etc 2017 Plant Cell\, * Equal 1st authors).\n\n• First demonstration t hat vacuolar invertase (VIN) plays critical roles in the formation of both male and female fertility. Discovered that reduced expression of VIN in ant hers delayed its dehiscence & decreased pollen viability\, whereas suppress ed VIN in seed coat resulted in programed cell death (PCD) in the endosperm and embryo (Wang & Ruan 2016 Plant Physiol).\n\n• Discovered that elevatio n of cell wall invertase (CWIN) in tomato ovaries confers tolerance to mode rate heat stress by suppressing PCD in a ROS independent manner\, thereby s ustaining fruit set under heat (Liu et al 2016 Plant Physiol). The work ide ntified\, for the first time\, that plant reproductive organs respond to se vere and moderate heat stress in ROS-dependent and independent ways\, respe ctively.\n\n• Novel finding that a substantial proportion of in planta (CWI N activity is capped by its inhibitor (INH1) and elevation of endogenous CW IN activity by silencing INH1increases seed weight and fruit sugar levels a nd delays leaf aging in tomato (Jin et al 2009 Plant Cell). Discovered that phloem-specific expression of CWIN and INH1 mRNAs in tomato fruit is devel opmentally-induced during ovary-fruit transition with the CWIN exhibiting a ctivity burst during fruit set through posttranslational regulation (Palmer et al 2015 Mol Plant).\n\n• Discovered the potential role of CWIN in endos perm nuclear division (Wang & Ruan 2012 Plant Physiol). This\, together wit h early work on sucrose synthase (Sus\; Ruan et al 2003 Plant Cell\; 2008 F unct Plant Biol\; Pugh et al 2010 Mol Plant)\, establishes a model where CW IN likely plays regulatory roles in early seed development through sugar si gnaling whereas Sus involves in late stage of seed development through impa ct on synthesis of cell wall and storage products (Wang & Ruan 2012 Plant P hysiol\; Ruan 2014 Annu Rev Plant Biol).\n\n• Identified sucrose availabili ty and its degradation by invertases as major cellular and biochemical bott lenecks for seed and fruit set and disruption of sucrose metabolism could c ause abortion under abiotic stress (Ruan et al.\, 2010 Mol Plant\; Ruan et al 2012 Trends Plant Sci\; Li et al 2012 J Exp Bot)\, a view validated rece ntly in our lab (Wang & Ruan 2016\, Liu et al 2016 Plant Physiol) \n\n• Unc overed that VIN regulates cotton fibre and Arabidopsis root elongation thro ugh osmotic dependent and independent pathways\, respectively (Wang et al 2 010 Plant Physiol). Demonstrated that VIN could regulate cell differentiati on (fiber initiation) by modulating expression of a subset of transcription factors and auxin signalling genes via sugar signalling (Wang et al 2014 P lant J).\n\n• Dissected roles of Sus in seed maternal and filial tissue. Su s in maternal seed coat is essential for its own growth but not for filial development. By contrast\, Sus in the filial tissue is required for both ma ternal and filial tissues (Ruan et al 1997\, 1998 Plant Physiol\; Ruan et a l 2003 Plant Cell\; 2005 J Exp Bot). Over-expression of Sus enhances cotton fibre and seed development (Xu et al 2012 Mol Plant\; Jiang et al 2012 Pla nt Biotech J).\n\n• Identified a novel Sus protein targets to cotton fibre cell wall matrix for intensive cellulose biosynthesis (Brill et al 2011 Pla nt Physiol).\n\n• Discovered that reversible gating of plasmodesmata\, modu lated by callose turnover\, coordinates plasma membrane sucrose and K+ carr iers to control fibre elongation (Ruan et al 2001 Plant Cell\; 2004 Plant P hysiol). Similarly\, developmental closure of symplasmic pathway coordinate s expression of plasma membrane hexose carriers in tomato fruit (Ruan & Pat rick 1995 Planta\; Ruan et al1997 Plant Cell and Environ). Developmental sw itch of symaplsmic-to-apoplasmic pathways have now been shown to be a commo n feature in sinks including developing apple fruit and grape berries (e.g. Zhang et al 2006 Plant Physiol). DTEND:20190624T172000Z DTSTAMP:20260306T174220Z DTSTART:20190624T162000Z GEO:42.448257;-76.477287 LOCATION:Plant Science Building\, 404 SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:"Coupling sucrose metabolism with phloem unloading and sugar signal ling for food and fiber production"- Yong-Ling Ruan UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_30511277532827 URL:https://events.cornell.edu/event/FALL_2019_HORT_RUAN END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR