Dr. Terri Long is a Professor and University Faculty Scholar in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology here at NCSU. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Georgia in 2005. Dr. Long completed postdoctoral work at Duke University in the lab of Dr. Philip Benfey, then served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Illinois at Chicago before joining the faculty at North Carolina State University in 2011. Her research group uses molecular and systems biology to gain insight into the molecular mechanisms of plant nutrient stress response, and her teaching focuses on the fundamentals of plant physiology. In addition to teaching and research Dr. Long also currently serves as Platform Director for Education and Workforce Development for the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative, where she works to help develop and implement programs and services to develop plant science leaders.
From the stars to your table - plants as complex conduits for iron nutrition
Iron is a ubiquitous micronutrient that plays critical roles in central metabolic processes for all living organisms. The mechanisms by which plants extract iron from soil and maintain iron homeostasis are particularly intriguing. While it is relatively abundant, in most soils iron is insoluble and therefore of limited bioavailability, however excess iron accumulation in plants can lead to cellular damage. Thus, plants must extract sufficient quantities of iron from recalcitrant soil environments, while also ensuring that iron content does not exceed a specific range. Arabidopsis and other dicots have evolved mechanisms to sense iron deficiency in the shoot, which triggers roots to solubilize, reduce and uptake iron across multiple root cell types before transport to the shoot.
Using a combination of molecular and confocal microscopy analysis, cell-type specific transcriptional profiling, and mathematical modeling we have uncovered several molecular mechanisms that control how plants recognize and respond to iron deficiency stress in a root cell-specific manner. Our findings provide new evidence for how distinct alternations in the root cortex control carbon metabolism in response to iron deprivation, and how iron deficiency causes specific developmental alterations in the root vasculature and epidermis. Together, these mechanisms operate to fine-tune root growth and physiology in the face of suboptimal growth conditions, while also providing new avenues for exploring inter- and intracellular nutrient stress response in plants.