Peng Zhang
Peng’s research had a synergistic relationship with the C4 Rice project and centres around understanding the processes that might have important functions in the regulation of C4 photosynthesis and the evolution of the Kranz Anatomy. The title of her PhD thesis was “Understanding the roles of translational and post-translational regulation in C4 photosynthesis”.
One of her questions was “how do C4 plants respond to rising temperature” if they were thought to have first evolved in hot and arid environment. One of her main focuses was to integrate data from the changes in the cellular transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome in the model C4 species Setaria viridis when treated with long-term heat stress, and refine the regulation that might occur at the translation level.
She was particularly interested in the TOR/S6K signalling pathway and how this regulate cell growth and division, photosynthesis, and cellular metabolism in the C4 plant Setaria viridis.
She had experience on plant physiology techniques such as Licor and TDL, enzymes biochemistry and currently is getting increasing experience at proteomics and metabolomics using various mass spectrometers.
Peng holds a Bachelor of Biotechnology, Hon from ANU (2011)
Peng has been awarded the Dean’s prestigious Summer Scholarship at the University of Otago, the Australian Postgraduate Award and an OCE top up scholarship from CSIRO.
Peng was part of the Centre from 2014 to 2019