Dr. To Thi Mai Huong is currently the Deputy Director of Research, Innovation and Technology Transfer Direction at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH), Vietnam. She is also the leader of the Rice functional genomics team at USTH. Her research interests focus on rice root development, Jasmonic acid signalling pathway, phosphate starvation tolerance, silicon transport in rice.
She is the Principal Investigator of several national/institutional projects (VinGroup Innovation Fund, NAFOSTED, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, USTH-Consortium ...) and a member of many international collaborative projects (Global Challenge Research Fund, Vietnam-France joint project, Vietnam-China joint project). She has published more than 20 papers in peer-reviewed international and national journals, 01 book chapter (Springer-Nature) and 01 patent. She is in charge of establishing research collaborations between USTH and other universities in Taiwan, Korea, France and the UK.
Monday Session 4
Exploring the hidden half - A surprising role of a plasmodesmal protein controlling the root development in rice under abiotic stress
In plants, the root system plays many important roles, including anchorage, water, and mineral uptake, and responding to environmental signals. The mechanisms underlying root system development are complex and involve many phytohormones of which auxin is the most important one. However, the role of plant stress hormone Jasmonic acid in root development remained elusive. Here, we report that Jasmonic acid promotes crown root development in rice by regulating OsGER4, a Germin-like protein. This gene was discovered by a Genome-Wide Association Study while observing the increase of crown root under Jasmonic acid-stimulated stress. OsGER4 was confirmed to be a hormone-responsive gene involved in various stress responses and its expression coincided with the auxin distribution pattern for lateral root initiation and crown root emergence. Further studies revealed that OsGER4 is targeted in plasmodesmata, suggesting how OsGER4 could be involved in regulating plasmodesmata permeability to regulate the auxin flow as a part of stress responses that results in changes in root development. Overall, the study provides significant novel insights on auxin homeostasis via uncharted roots through plasmodesmata with the involvement of OsGER4 during root formation in rice under perturbation conditions.