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Education and Training:

Postdoctoral training, Stanford University
Ph.D., Yale University
B.Sc. & M.Phil., The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Research Areas

Stomatal development, environmental signaling, transcriptional regulation, plant cell and developmental biology

Research Interests

Environment plays a key role in influencing how living organisms grow and develop. Our research aims at understanding the mechanism of this influence using stomata in plants as our model system. Stomata—the essential surface pores that governs gas exchange—provide a powerful system to address this fundamental question at the cell level. We aim to decipher the environmental signalling network that controls the production of stomata using a multidisciplinary approach, from cell biology, biochemistry, genetics to genomics. Besides its values in basic research, the study of stomata, which directly affect photosynthetic capacity and water usage in plants, has implications in agriculture and food production.

Selected Awards:

2017      NUS Early Career Research Award, National University of Singapore
2010      Croucher Fellowship, The Croucher Foundation, Hong Kong
2010      John S. Nicholas Prize for outstanding doctoral candidates in biology, Yale University
2003      Croucher Scholarship, The Croucher Foundation, Hong Kong

Membership on Advisory or Editorial Boards of scientific journals:

• New Phytologist, Advisory Board member (since 2021)

• Frontiers in Plant Science, Associate Editor (since 2021)

• Scientific Reports, Editorial Board member (since 2022)

• BMC Plant Biology, Editorial Board member (since 2020)

• Cells & Development, Advisory Board member (since 2022)

Selected Publications

For full list of publication, please visit Google Scholar.

1. Yang X, Gavya S L, Zhou Z, Urano D, Lau OS (2022) Abscisic acid regulates stomatal production by imprinting a SnRK2 kinase-mediated phosphocode on the master regulator SPEECHLESS. Science Advances 8, eadd2063. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add2063 This study was highlighted in Nature Plants (2022): “Phosphocode stomata control” by Tena, G. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01286-9

2. Hiiragi T, Gladfelter AS, Miguel-Aliaga I, Coller HA, Lau OS, McBride HM, Aoki K, Linkermann A, Santaguida S, Wasteneys G, Rivron NC, Shahbazi MN, Ebisuya M, Lancaster MA. (2021) 20 years of Developmental Cell: Looking forward. Developmental Cell. 56:3185-3191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2021.11.017

3. Wang S*, Zhou Z*, Rahiman R, Lee GS, Yeo YK, Xin Yang X, Lau OS. (2021) Light regulates stomatal development by modulating paracrine signaling from inner tissues. Nature Communications 12, 3403. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23728-2 *co-first authors

4. Zhou Z and Lau OS. (2021) Dissecting the developmental roles of Pol II-associated proteins through the stomatal pores. New Phytologist 230:11-13.

5. Han C, Liu Y, Shi W, Qiao Y, Wang L, Tian Y, Fan M, Deng Z, Lau OS, De Jaeger G, Bai MY. (2020) KIN10 promotes stomatal development through stabilization of the SPEECHLESS transcription factor. Nature Communications 11:4214. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18048-w.

6. Lau OS^†, Song Z, Zhou Z, Davies KA, Chang J, Yang X, Wang S, Lucyshyn D, Tay IH, Wigge PA, Bergmann DC^†. (2018) Direct control of SPEECHLESS by PIF4 in the high temperature response of stomatal development. Current Biology 28:1273-1280. ^†co-corresponding authors

7. Wang S, Lau OS. (2018) MOBE-ChIP: Probing Cell Type-Specific Binding Through Large-Scale Chromatin Immunoprecipitation. Methods in Molecular Biology 1689:167-176.

8. Lau OS^† and Bergmann DC^†. (2015) MOBE-ChIP: a large-scale chromatin immunoprecipitation assay for cell type-specific studies. Plant Journal 84:443-50. ^†co-corresponding authors

9. Lau OS, Davies KA, Chang J, Adrian J, Rowe MH, Ballenger CE and Bergmann DC. (2014) Direct roles of SPEECHLESS in the specification of stomatal self-renewing cells. Science 345:1605-09.

10. Matos JL*, Lau OS*, Hachez C*, Cruz-Ramírez A, Scheres B and Bergmann DC. (2014) Irreversible fate commitment upon exit from stem-cell-like divisions in the Arabidopsis stomatal lineage requires a FAMA and RETINOBLASTOMA-RELATED module. eLife 3:e03271. *co-first authors

11. Lau OS and Bergmann DC. (2012) Stomatal development: a plant’s perspective on cell polarity, cell fate transitions and intercellular communication. Development 39:3683-92.

12. Lau OS and Deng XW. (2012) The photomorphogenic repressors COP1 and DET1: 20 years later. Trends in Plant Science 17:584-93.

13. Lau OS, Huang X, Charron JB, Lee JH, Li G and Deng XW. (2011) Interaction of Arabidopsis DET1 with CCA1 and LHY in mediating transcriptional repression in the plant circadian clock. Molecular Cell 43:703-12.

14. Lau OS and Deng XW. (2010) Plant hormone signaling lightens up: integrators of light and hormones. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 13:571-7.

15. Lau OS, Ng WK, Chan WL, Chang SP and Sun SSM. (2010) Production of the 42-kDa Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein 1, a leading malaria vaccine antigen, in Arabidopsis thaliana seeds. Plant Biotechnology Journal 8:994-1004.

16. Lau OS and Sun SSM. (2009) Plant seeds as bioreactors for recombinant protein production. Biotechnology Advances 27:1015-22.

17. Lau OS and Deng XW. (2009) Effect of Arabidopsis COP10 ubiquitin E2 enhancement activity across E2 families and functional conservation among its canonical homologs. Biochemical Journal 418:683-90.

18. Jiao Y, Lau OS and Deng XW. (2007) Light-regulated transcriptional networks in higher plants. Nature Reviews Genetics 8:217-30.