Group of Plant-Fungal Interaction and Plant Reproductive Biology led by Prof. Weihua Tang is a member of National Lab of Plant Molecular Genetics at Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Pollen tubes and pathogenic fungal hyphae are two very different types of eukaryotic cells, except that they both can grow invasively by tip growth, which allow them not only can grow rapidly to invade targeted plant tissues but also can respond environmental cues to adjust growth direction swiftly. The yield of major plant material we eat requires a preceding fertilization by a pollen tube, and the yield of all crops is constantly and significantly reduced by fungal diseases as a result of pathogenic fungal hyphal invasion. Our research focus is to understand how to be a tip-growing cell, either to deliver sperm for fertilization or to cause crop diseases.