Jian Feng Ma

Abstract

What inspired your interest in plant science?I wanted to be an engineer or a medical doctor, but I was enrolled into an agricultural university by accident.At the beginning I was not so happy about this, however, one professor teaching inorganic chemistry told us at his lecture 'since you are here, you may as well stay and make the best of it'.I was impressed by his words and then started to study very hard.I came into contact with plant science when I conducted graduation research during the third year of the university course.I went to paddy fields to sample the soil and rice plants and started to be interested in the plant sciences.I was especially interested in knowing what are the 'foods' for plants and how plants 'absorb and digest' these foods.These questions are still the target of my research now.At different stages during my career, I have been working on different topics in plant science.I was trained in traditional plant nutrition (mineral nutrition) during my Masters and Doctoral courses, and natural product chemistry during my postdoctoral period.There were no gene-and protein-related experiments at that time, but I felt very happy to grow the plants and observe them.Through these experiences, I obtained a strong background in whole-plant physiology.I began molecular studies in 2005 with the isolation of rice mutants.My interest then turned to explore physiological phenomenon at the molecular level, which required knowledge of both whole-plant physiology and molecular biology.