Professor Yong-Ling Ruan focuses on discovering genes and mechanisms that control resource and energy allocation between and within plant cells and organs for improving growth, yield, resilience and biodiversity.

He aims to:

• Elucidate how sugar metabolism, transport and signalling regulate plant development and stress responses;
• Identify regulatory genes and signals controlling carbon nutrient distribution and
• Dissect molecular networks underpinning resource partitioning during evolution and domestication.

He and his team have:

• Identified molecular players including transcription factors that control sucrose input into and utilization within cells & organs and established a “Ready-Set- Grow” model for seed and fruit set;
• Discovered roles of sucrose synthase, invertase, their interacting proteins, sugar transporters and plasmodesmata in growth, yield formation and stress responses and
• Provided evolutionary and functional insights into the origin and transmission of sugar signals across the space of cell wall, cytosol and vacuole.

Prof Ruan has led his team to a sustained success with findings and insights published in top journals such as The Plant Cell, Nature Plants, Molecular Plant, PNAS, Nature Genetics, Journal of Biological Chimestry, Plant Physiology, Plant Journal and New Phytologist.The quality and impact of Prof Ruan's research has been internationally recognized as evidenced by, for example, having written multiple invited articles for world renowned Annual Review of Plant Biology and Trends in Plant Science.

Prof Ruan is currently editor of The Plant Cell,  Molecular Plant and Journal of Plant Physiology and has been appointed to ARC College of Experts. He has given invited talks worldwide and received several prestigious awards and recognitions, such as Peter Goldacre Medal from ASPS and Chair Professorship from Zhejiang University and CJ Laureate Professorship at Northwest A & F University.

Publication list:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8394-4474

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6FgdxmMAAAAJ&hl=en

https://publons.com/researcher/4590639/yong-ling-ruan/