Sheng Luan
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Plant Science & Agriculture
Cells in plants, fungi and animals all use calcium ions (Ca2+) as a second messenger. A brief rise in calcium inside a cell relays an outside signal, such as an attacking microbe or a change in soil nutrients, to the machinery that responds.
- Fields
Plant Science & Agriculture
Biology
Biochemistry
- Topics
calcium signaling
Ca2+ second messenger
Arabidopsis
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Identify the calcium influx channels and efflux transporters that shape cytosolic Ca2+ signals in Arabidopsis, using genetic screens followed by electrophysiology and cell biology to reconstitute each pathway in cells.
- Define how cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (CNGCs), a family of calcium channels, drive calcium oscillations during guided pollen tube growth and during plant innate immune responses to bacteria.
- Characterize newly discovered calcium channels acting in reproductive cell death of male and female cells, root mechano-sensing, and plant-fungal interactions, using biochemical and structural methods to link structure to function.
- Determine how low potassium status activates the dual CBL-CIPK pathways, calcium sensors paired with kinases, that switch Arabidopsis into an adaptation mode.
- Identify the events by which high potassium activates the nutrient sensor TOR, which promotes growth and leads to degradation of the CBL-CIPK network.
- Dissect how the CBL-CIPK pathway controls magnesium transporters that move Mg across the vacuolar membrane in high-magnesium soils, using patch-clamp, genetic and biochemical approaches.
More about the research
A long-standing puzzle is how one simple ion can carry so many different messages and trigger so many distinct responses. This research uses the small model plant Arabidopsis to work out how calcium signals are made, read, and linked to specific outcomes. One project focuses on calcium channels in immunity, reproduction and sensing. A second asks how calcium-based signaling helps plants sense and balance mineral nutrients such as potassium and magnesium.
Why it matters
Defects in calcium signaling contribute to human diseases including Alzheimer's disease, heart failure, metabolic and immune disorders, and cancer, so general rules learned in plants could inform how these signals work in people. On the agricultural side, understanding how plants take up and use potassium and magnesium could help breed crops that need less fertilizer, lowering grower costs and reducing pollution from fertilizer production and use. Findings are intended for crop improvement through collaborations with USDA and international labs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ronda Rolfes
Georgetown University, DC·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether inositol pyrophosphates, energy-rich signaling molecules, control the PHO pathway that maintains phosphate balance when Candida albicans faces phosphate limitation.
Fedor Karginov
University of California-Riverside, CA·Biochemistry
Determine how EndoU, a calcium-activated RNA-cutting enzyme, controls survival-or-death decisions in developing thymocytes (immature T cells) as calcium levels inside the cell change.
Federica Brandizzi
Michigan State University, MI·Biology
Determine how IRE1, the most conserved UPR sensor and both a protein kinase and an RNA-cutting enzyme, drives protein phosphorylation changes that support growth and relieve ER stress in Arabidopsis.
The school
University of California-Berkeley: 46 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 825 research doctorates a year.
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