Shu Yi Yang, NTU

Shu-Yi Yang Associate Professor

Ph.D., University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Specialty: Plant Molecular Biology, Plant-Microbe Interactions

E-mail: shuyiyang@ntu.edu.tw

Office: Life Science Building R1047

Telephone: 886-2-3366-2533

Talent Recruitment

Welcome to join our team! Available positions include:
Postdoctoral researchers, PhD, and Master's students. We welcome students interested in researching how important crops, such as rice and tomato, establish symbiotic relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and benefit from them. Feel free to apply! You can also contact me to discuss other research topics.

Current Research Interests

Discovery of the transcriptional regulation mechanism of AM symbiosis-related genes
Revealing the molecular mechanism essential for AM symbiosis-related stress tolerance
Revealing the relevance of plant peptide hormones for AM symbiosis-related lateral root development

Research Introduction

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the name given to the endosymbiotic association of a plant root and a fungus from the phylum Glomeromycota. More than 80% of vascular plants can be colonized by AM fungi. Inside root inner cortex cells, the fungal hyphae develops highly branched tree-like structures called arbuscule, which is the major site for nutrient exchange between fungi and plant. From my past research, I found that 70% of the overall Pi acquired by the rice cultivar Nipponbare is delivered via the symbiotic route. Surprisingly, mutations in PT11 or PT13, two symbiosis-specific rice Pi transporters, both affected fungal colonization and arbuscule formation, so each gene is essential for AM symbiosis. However, for symbiotic Pi uptake, only PT11 is necessary and sufficient, and the role of PT13 is still unclear.
Like PT11 and PT13, a set of genes which was exclusively expressed in mycorrhizal roots might be essential for the cellular reprogramming during AM symbiosis. However, so far the transcriptional regulation mechanism of these genes was not fully understood. Transcription factors which expression is up-regulated by AM symbiosis are often important for AM symbiosis. We have identified plant transcription factors that are induced by AM symbiosis in rice and tomato. The spatial expression pattern, function and downstream genes of these transcription factors have been further studied in order to better understand the mechanisms mediating AM symbiosis development.
Even though the benefits of AM symbiosis on host plant stress tolerance are widely reported, the molecular mechanisms behind is still unclear. We have compared the transcriptomes of mock and mycorrhizal rice grown under normal and salinity condition. These analyses could help us to find the candidate genes or metabolites highly correlated with symbiosis-involved stress tolerance.
Plant peptide hormones play important roles in the signaling transduction in plants. However, their relevance to the development of AM symbiosis and whether they are involved in AM-regulated root development remain largely unknown. We have identified the peptide hormones in tomato and rice that the expression is influenced by AM symbiosis, and found that AM symbiosis may reduce the expression of tomato C-terminal encoded peptide (CEP2) to diminish its negative effect on auxin-related pathway in order to enhance lateral root growth.

Well-developed arbuscule inside rice cortical cells indicated by white arrowhead (A). WGA-Alexafluor 488 cell wall staining of Rhizophagus irregularis structures of wild type (B), pt11 RNAi line (C) and pt13 RNAi line (D) roots. Bars = 20 µm. Histochemical GUS staining of a proportion of a R. irregularis colonized rice root expressing empty vector (E), pPT11-GUS (F) and pPT13-GUS (G) constructs. Arrowheads represent cortical cells containing arbuscules. Bars = 20 µm.

(AB) Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) application complemented the lateral root density and auxin distribution affected by the synthetic C-terminally encoded peptide (CEP)2 peptide. (C) Schematic summary of C- terminally encoded peptide (CEP)2 engagement in tomato lateral root formation in response to arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis.

Selected Publications

Chien H#, Kuo TY#, Yao CH#, Su YR#, Chang YT, Guo ZL, Chang KC, Hsieh YH and Yang SY* (2024). Nuclear factors NF-YC3 and NF-YBs positively regulate arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in tomato. Plant Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae381. (# Co-first author)
Yang SY#, Lin WY#, Hsiao YM# and Chiou TJ* (2024). Milestones in understanding transport, sensing, and signaling of the plant nutrient phosphorus. Plant Cell. 36(5):1504-1523 (# Co-first author)
Hsieh C, Chen YH, Chang KC and Yang SY* (2022). Transcriptome analysis reveals the mechanisms for mycorrhiza-enhanced salt tolerance in rice. Frontiers in Plant Science. 13:1072171
Hsieh, YH, Wei, YH, Lo, JC, Pan, HY and Yang SY* (2022). Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis enhances tomato lateral root formation by modulating CEP2 peptide expression. New Phytologist. 235(1): 292-305
Yang SY, Lu WC, Ko SS, Sun CM, Hung JC and Chiou TJ*. (2020). Upstream open reading frame and phosphate-regulated expression of rice OsNLA1 controls phosphate transport and reproduction. Plant Physiology. 182(1): 393-407
Roth R, Chiapello M, Montero H, Gehrig P, Grossmann J, O'Holleran K, Hartken D, Walters F, Yang SY, Hillmer S, Schumacher K, Bowden S, Craze M, Wallington EJ, Miyao A, Sawers R, Martinoia E, Paszkowski U*. (2018). A rice Serine/Threonine receptor-like kinase regulates arbuscular mycorrhizal
symbiosis at the peri-arbuscular membrane. Nature Communications. 9(1):4677
Yang SY#, Huang TK#, Kuo HF and Chiou TJ*. (2017). Role of vacuoles in phosphorus storage and remobilization. Journal of Experimental Botany Journal of Experimental Botany. 68 (12): 3045–55 (# Co-first author)
Liu TY#, Huang TK#, Yang SY#, Hong YT, Huang SM, Wang FN, Chiang SF, Tsai SY, Lu WC and Chiou TJ* (2016) Identification of plant vacuolar transporters mediating phosphate storage. Nature Communications. 31 (7): 11095 (# Co-first author)
Gutjahr C#, Gobbato E#, Choi JM, Riemann M, Johnston MG, Summers W, Carbonnel S, Mansfield C, Yang SY, Nadal M, Acosta I, Takano M, Jiao WB, Schneeberger K, Kelly KA and Paszkowski U*(2015) Rice perception of symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi requires the karrikin receptor complex. Science. 350 (6267): 1521-24 (# Co-first author)
Qu G, Kruszka K, Plewka P, Yang SY, Chiou TJ, Jarmolowski A, Szweykowska-Kulinska Z, Echeverria M and Karlowski WM* (2015) Promoter-based identification of novel non-coding RNAs reveals the presence of dicistronic snoRNA-miRNA genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. BMC Genomics. 16(1):1009
Gutjahr C, Sawers RJ, Marti G, Andrés-Hernández L, Yang SY, Casieri L, Angliker H, Oakeley EJ, Wolfender JL, Abreu-Goodger C, Paszkowski U* (2015) Transcriptome diversity among rice root types during asymbiosis and interaction with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. PNAS. 112(21):6754-59.
Yang SY, Grønlund M, Jakobsen I, Grotemeyer MS, Rentsch D, Miyao A, Hirochika H, Kumar CS, Sundaresan V, Salamin N, Catausan S, Mattes N, Heuer S, Paszkowski U* (2012) Nonredundant Regulation of Rice Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis by Two Members of the PHOSPHATE TRANSPORTER1 Gene Family. The Plant Cell. 24(10):4236-51
Yang SY and Paszkowski U* (2011) Phosphate import at the arbuscule: just a nutrient? Mol Plant Microbe Interact. 24(11):1296-99.
Yang SY, Shih MD, Lin TP, Hsing YIC (2011) Two soybean (Glycine maxL.) GmPM proteins reduce liposome leakage during desiccation. Botanical Studies. 52 (4): 465-70
Lin YF, Liang HM, Yang SY, Boch A, Clemens S, Chen CC, Wu JF, Huang JL, Yeh KC* (2009) Arabidopsis IRT3 is a zinc-regulated and plasma membrane localized zinc/iron transporter. New Phytologist. 182(2):392-404
Sawers RJH, Yang SY, Gutjahr C, Paszkowski U* (2008) The molecular components of nutrient exchange in arbuscular mycorrhizal interactions. In: Z.A. Siddiqui et al., (eds.), Mycorrhizae: Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, pp. 37-59 ©2008 Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Courses Taught

Plant physiology
General Biology
Botany
Methods in Plant Molecular Biology Research

Honors and Awards

2023 Outstanding Young Scholar Award, Taiwan Society of Plant Biologists
2022 Ta-You Wu Memorial Award, National Science and Technology Council
2020 Distinguished teaching award in the academic year, National Taiwan University
2019 Outstanding teaching award in the academic year, National Taiwan University

Current members

Doctoral class

Chao-Ling Ding

Master Class

Jui-Chi Lo、Zheng-Lin Guo、Yu-Chi Zhao、Man-Chi Ho、 Yu-Ting Chang、Wan-Ning Kuo、Pei-Jung Chen、Shu-Rui Yang

Former members

Graduated PhD student

Kai-Chieh Chang

Graduated master students

Ting-Yu Kuo、Heng Chien、Yun-Hsin Chen、Yu-Heng Hsieh、Yi-Hsien Wei、Ching-Hung Yao、Yi-Zheng Lin、Yi-Ru Su

Summer college students

Chi-Chieh Chen、Hsuan-Yu Pan、譚嘉祐、Li-An Chiang

High school student

Hung-You Lin、于璦維、陳沁宜