Chuanfa Liu

Dr. Liu earned his Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Nanjing University from September 2006 to June 2010, and his Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Genetics from the same institution from September 2010 to March 2018. He conducted postdoctoral research at Southern University of Science and Technology (jointly trained with Wuhan University) from May 2018 to January 2021, and served as a Senior Research Scholar at Southern University of Science and Technology from February 2021 to February 2023. Dr. Liu is a member of the Jiangsu Society for Plant Physiology. Dr. Liu’s research focuses on plant nutrition and plant–soil stress adaptation, aiming to elucidate the molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying plant stress tolerance, high efficiency, and high yield, so as to provide theoretical foundations and genetic resources for future molecular design breeding of crops, contributing to sustainable agricultural development and food security. In recent years, employing integrated biological approaches including proteomics, molecular biology, cell biology, and transcriptomics, his research has revealed novel mechanisms of plant salt tolerance regulated by protein post-translational modifications and new functions of plant nitrate transporters. As first author or co-author, he has published papers in journals including Molecular Plant (2018), Frontiers in Plant Science (2021), New Phytologist (2023, 2025), Journal of Hazardous Materials (2024), and Journal of Integrative Plant Biology (2025). He has been selected as a trainee member of the third Youth Editorial Board of New Crops. He has successively led projects funded by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, institutional independent deployment projects, and the Young Scientists Fund (Category C) of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Selected publications:
1. Chuanfa Liu; Guanting Niu; Huchen Zhang; Yafei Sun; Shubin Sun; Fugen Yu; Shan Lu; Yonghua Yang; Jianming Li*; Zhi Hong*; Trimming of N-glycans by the Golgi-localized a-1,2-mannosidases, MNS1 and MNS2, is crucial for maintaining RSW2 protein abundance during salt stress in Arabidopsis, Molecular Plant, 2018, 11(5)
2. Chuanfa Liu; Guanting Niu; Xiaowen Li; Huchen Zhang; Huawei Chen; Dongxia Hou; Ping Lan*; Zhi Hong*; Comparative label-free quantitative proteomics analysis reveals the essential roles of N-glycans in salt tolerance by modulating protein abundance in Arabidopsis, Frontiers in Plant Science, 2021, 12
3. Chuanfa Liu; Dongdong Hao; Ruixue Sun; Yi Zhang; Yang Peng; Yang Yuan; Kai Jiang; Wenyang Li; Xing Wen*; Hongwei Guo*; Arabidopsis NPF2.13 functions as a critical transporter of bacterial natural compound tunicamycin in plant-microbe interaction, New Phytologist, 2023, 238(2): 765-780
4. Chuanfa Liu; Yilin Pan; Yuchen Fei; Renfang Shen; Ping Lan*; Hijacking phosphate signaling: A novel strategy of fungal pathogens in plant disease, Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, 2025, 67(8): 1988-1990
5. Chuanfa Liu; Yuchen Fei; Peijun Zhou; Yilin Pan; Bingyan Liu; Renfang Shen; Ping Lan*; A yeast transcription factor atlas: Implications for novel crop regulatory networks, New Crops, 2025, 3(100095)