Zhen-Ming Pei
Associate Professor

919-613-8152 (office), 613-8165 (lab)

3102 French Family Science Center

Research Interests: Plant Sensory Signal Transduction

My laboratory is interested in the early signaling events by which plants sense environmental signals and decode to give the appropriate responses. Upon perception of external signals, cell surface receptors trigger an increase in cytosolic free calcium concentration, which is mediated by ion channels. Our long-term goals are to identify these receptors and ion channels, isolate their interacting components, and assign molecular functions to them. Currently, we are using multidisciplinary approaches of biophysics, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular genetics, and function genomics to dissect the signaling cascades of external calcium as well as nitric oxide in the model plant Arabidopsis.

Current projects: External calcium and nitric oxide signaling in Arabidopsis

Representative Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

1. Tang R-H, Han S, Zheng H, Cook CW, Choi CS, Woerner TE, Jackson RB, & Pei Z-M, Coupling diurnal cytosolic Ca²⁺ oscillations to the CAS−IP₃ pathway in Arabidopsis, Science, vol. 315 (2007), pp. 1423-1426 [pdf] .
2. Pei Z-M & Kuchitsu K, Early ABA Signaling Events in Guard Cells, J Plant Growth Regul, vol. 24 (2005), pp. 296–307 [pdf] .
3. He Y, Tang R-H, Hao Y, Stevens RD, Cook CW, Ahn SM, Jing L, Yang Z, Chen L, Guo F, Fiorani F, Jackson RB, Crawford NM, & Pei Z-M, Nitric oxide represses the Arabidopsis floral transition, Science, vol. 305 (2004), pp. 1968-1971 [pdf] .
4. Han S, Tang R, Anderson LK, Woerner TE, & Pei Z-M, A cell surface receptor mediates extracellular Ca²⁺ sensing in guard cells, Nature, vol. 425 (2003), pp. 196-200 [pdf] .
5. Pei Z-M, Murata Y, Benning G, Thomine S, Klusener B, Allen GJ, Grill E, & Schroeder JI, Calcium channels activated by hydrogen peroxide mediate abscisic acid signalling in guard cells, Nature, vol. 406 (2000), pp. 731-734 [pdf] .
6. Pei Z-M, Baizabal-Aguirre VM, Allen GJ, & Schroeder JI, A transient outward-rectifying K⁺ channel current down-regulated by cytosolic Ca²⁺ in Arabidopsis thaliana guard cells, PNAS, vol. 95 (1998), pp. 6548-6553 [pdf] .
7. Pei Z-M, Ghassemian M, Kwak CM, McCourt P, & Schroeder JI, Role of farnesyltransferase in ABA regulation of guard cell anion channels and plant water loss, Science, vol. 282 (1998), pp. 287-290 [pdf] .
8. Pei Z-M, Kuchitsu K, Ward JM, Schwarz M, & Schroeder JI, Differential abscisic acid regulation of guard cell slow anion channels in Arabidopsis wild-type and abi1 and abi2 mutants, Plant Cell, vol. 9 (1997), pp. 409-423 [pdf] .
9. Pei Z-M, Ward JM, Harper JF, & Schroeder JI, A novel chloride channel in Vicia faba guard cell vacuoles activated by the serine/threonine kinase, CDPK, EMBO J, vol. 15 (1996), pp. 6564-6574 [picrender.fcgi] .