Prof. Jian Zhao from the College of Plant Sciences & Technology of Huazhong Agricultural University visited Wuhan Botanical Garden at the invitation of Prof. Yansheng Zhang. He delivered an academic lecture entitled "Transport and transcriptional regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis in Medicago truncatula” on March 28 th.

Prof. Zhao introduced his research on studying the molecular mechanisms of the plant vacuoles’ transporters and their functions in regulating the flavonoid biosynthesis in alfalfa seeds. He was the first scientist to discover that MtMATE1 and MtMATE2 were specific transporters for flavonoids. Prof. Zhao’s research also involved in the functional analysis of MtPAR and MtTT8, the transcription factors that regulate the biosynthesis of flavonoids; Through combining the database of the transcriptome and metabonomics, they have discovered some new genes encoding putative transcription factors and transporters in controlling the carbon flows toward flavonoid biosynthesis.

Prof. Jian Zhao is engaged in natural product biosynthesis and metabolic engineering, lipid metabolism.

More information about Prof. Jian Zhao available at  http://cpst.hzau.edu.cn/Article/showdetail.asp?userid=4191 

 Prof. Jian Zhao delivering a lecture