Professor Jae-gwang Kim

The research team led by Professor Jae-gwang Kim of the Life Science major at Incheon National University (President: In-jae Lee) announced that it has newly identified the stepwise metabolic adaptation mechanisms of pea sprouts under different photoperiods by comprehensively analyzing more than 100 metabolites, including plant hormone profiles that are highly challenging to analyze and functional carotenoids.

Plant hormone analysis is essential for understanding the core mechanisms by which environmental signals regulate metabolic reprogramming in plants. However, because plant hormones exist only in extremely small amounts within plant tissues, precise hormone profiling is widely recognized as a technically demanding area of research.

The research team established advanced quantitative and profiling techniques for various plant hormones using state-of-the-art analytical instruments. By integrating the analysis of related metabolites, the team scientifically presented conditions for optimizing plant growth in smart agriculture environments. In addition, through the analysis of carotenoids known to have functional benefits for human health, the study also laid a scientific foundation for the development of high-value functional foods.

This research was conducted with support from the Rural Development Administration and the National Research Foundation of Korea. Graduate students Jong-seong Lee and Yu-mi Shin of the Department of Life Science at Incheon National University participated as co-first authors. Dr. Woo-deok Seo of the Rural Development Administration and Professor Jae-gwang Kim of Incheon National University jointly led the study as corresponding authors. The research findings were published in the international journal Food Chemistry (Impact Factor 9.8, JCR Q1 top 3.1%).

Professor Jae-gwang Kim, the principal investigator, who was also named on the 2024 list of the “World’s Top 2% Scientists” jointly announced by Elsevier and Stanford University, stated that “the integrated analytical technology developed in this study is expected to provide important insights into understanding plant acclimation and adaptation mechanisms to environmental changes such as climate change, by comprehensively tracking diverse physiological and metabolic responses from the molecular level.”