Zhen-Ming Pei

Associate Professor of Biology

Office: 
3102 Ffsc, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-1000
Campus Box: 
Box 90338, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-1000
Phone: 
(919) 613-8152
Email: 
zpei@duke.edu
Zhen-Ming Pei
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.

Education

  • Ph.D., Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology (China) 1993

  • M.S., Fudan University (China) 1990

  • B.S., Lanzhou University (China) 1985

Zhang, Shu, Qian-Rong Wu, Lu-Lu Liu, Hui-Min Zhang, Jian-Wei Gao, and Zhen-Ming Pei. “Osmotic stress alters circadian cytosolic Ca2+ oscillations and OSCA1 is required in circadian gated stress adaptation.” Plant Signaling & Behavior 15, no. 12 (December 2020): 1836883. https://doi.org/10.1080/15592324.2020.1836883. Full Text

Crawford, B. M., H. N. Wang, P. Strobbia, R. Zentella, Z. M. Pei, T. P. Sun, and T. Vo-Dinh. “Plasmonic Nanobiosensing: From in situ plant monitoring to cancer diagnostics at the point of care.” Jphys Photonics 2, no. 3 (July 7, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7647/ab9714. Full Text

Wu, Feihua, Yuan Chi, Zhonghao Jiang, Yuanyuan Xu, Ling Xie, Feifei Huang, Di Wan, et al. “Hydrogen peroxide sensor HPCA1 is an LRR receptor kinase in Arabidopsis.” Nature 578, no. 7796 (February 2020): 577–81. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2032-3. Full Text

Jiang, Zhonghao, Xiaoping Zhou, Ming Tao, Fang Yuan, Lulu Liu, Feihua Wu, Xiaomei Wu, et al. “Plant cell-surface GIPC sphingolipids sense salt to trigger Ca2+ influx.” Nature 572, no. 7769 (August 2019): 341–46. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1449-z. Full Text

Crawford, Bridget M., Pietro Strobbia, Hsin-Neng Wang, Rodolfo Zentella, Maxim I. Boyanov, Zhen-Ming Pei, Tai-Ping Sun, Kenneth M. Kemner, and Tuan Vo-Dinh. “Plasmonic Nanoprobes for in Vivo Multimodal Sensing and Bioimaging of MicroRNA within Plants.” Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces 11, no. 8 (February 12, 2019): 7743–54. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.8b19977. Full Text

Zhu, Yi-Hua, and Zhen-Ming Pei. “GSK2193874 treatment at heatstroke onset reduced cell apoptosis in heatstroke mice.” Cellular and Molecular Biology (Noisy Le Grand, France) 64, no. 7 (May 30, 2018): 36–42.

Zhu, Yi-Hua, and Zhen-Ming Pei. “Sustenance of endothelial cell stability in septic mice through appropriate activation of transient receptor potential vanilloid-4.” Cellular and Molecular Biology (Noisy Le Grand, France) 64, no. 7 (May 30, 2018): 80–85.

Liu, Lulu, Zhonghao Jiang, Shu Zhang, Hongyan Zhao, Weiguang Yang, James N. Siedow, and Zhen-Ming Pei. “Both NaCl and H2O2 Long-Term Stresses Affect Basal Cytosolic Ca2+ Levels but Only NaCl Alters Cytosolic Ca2+ Signatures in Arabidopsis.” Frontiers in Plant Science 9 (January 2018): 1390. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.01390. Full Text

Li, Q., Y. J. Wang, C. K. Liu, Z. M. Pei, and W. L. Shi. “The crosstalk between ABA, nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide, and calcium in stomatal closing of Arabidopsis thaliana.” Biologia (Poland) 72, no. 10 (October 26, 2017): 1140–46. https://doi.org/10.1515/biolog-2017-0126. Full Text

A R Webb, Alex, Kazuyuki Kuchitsu, June Kwak, Zhen-Ming Pei, and Hidetoshi Iida. “Sensors Make Sense of Signaling.” Plant & Cell Physiology 58, no. 7 (July 2017): 1121–25. https://doi.org/10.1093/pcp/pcx085. Full Text

Pages

Strobbia, P., B. M. Crawford, H. N. Wang, R. Zentella, M. I. Boyanov, Z. M. Pei, T. P. Sun, K. M. Kemner, and T. Vo-Dinh. “Application of plasmonic nanoprobes for SERS sensing and imaging of biotargets in plant systems.” In Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging  Proceedings of Spie, Vol. 10894, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2512010. Full Text

Crawford, B. M., P. Strobbia, H. N. Wang, R. Zentella, M. I. Boyanov, R. Odion, Z. M. Pei, T. P. Sun, K. M. Kemner, and T. Vo-Dinh. “In vivo nucleic acid detection and imaging within whole plants using plasmonic nanosensors.” In Proceedings of Spie  the International Society for Optical Engineering, Vol. 11007, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2524840. Full Text

Crawford, B. M., P. Strobbia, H. N. Wang, R. Zentella, M. I. Boyanov, Z. M. Pei, T. P. Sun, K. M. Kemner, and T. Vo-Dinh. “In vivo detection of microRNA within plants using plasmonic nanosensors.” In Proceedings of Spie  the International Society for Optical Engineering, Vol. 11082, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2529818. Full Text

Selected Grants

Genetics Training Grant awarded by National Institutes of Health (Mentor). 1979 to 2020

Plant Osmosensors awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2015 to 2019

Multi-functional Plasmonics Nanoprobes for Cellular Sensing and Imaging awarded by Department of Energy (Co Investigator). 2015 to 2019

Functional analysis of Arabidopsis NSC1/DMI1 Ca2+ permeable channels awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2009 to 2013

Molecular Genetic Analysis of Ca2+Channel-Mediated Cold Sensing awarded by Department of Agriculture (Principal Investigator). 2006 to 2009

Nutrient Ca2 Sensed by CAS Regulates the Floral Transition in Arabidopsis and Rice awarded by Department of Agriculture (Principal Investigator). 2005 to 2009

External-calcium Signal Transduction in Arabidopsis Guard Cells awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2005 to 2008

Calcium Channel Regulation in Arabidopsis Guard Cells awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2002 to 2005