Land plants are frequently challenged by the changing physical environment, which often generates various biotic and abiotic stresses including salinity, drought, and temperature extremes. According to reports from the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), 96.5% of global rural land area is under the influence of abiotic stresses. These abiotic stresses adversely affect the productivity and quality of crops worldwide. My research interest is to understand the molecular mechanisms that plants have evolved to cope with abiotic stresses. Most of my effort has been concentrating on the identification of key components in signal transduction pathways for plant responses to abiotic stresses, with the long-term goal of developing rational strategies to improve crop productivity and agricultural and environmental sustainability. In my lab, we use a combination of forward and reverse genetics in Arabidopsis thaliana, tomato, and other crop plants to study the roles of proteins and non-protein encoding regulatory small RNAs in plant abiotic stress responses.
