Dr. Qing Yang, Professor

College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China

Biography

Dr. Qing Yang is a Professor in the College of Forestry at Beijing Forestry University, China. Focusing on the important development field of germplasm innovation of economic forest and fruit trees in the forestry and grassland sector, she has long been committed to researching the molecular mechanisms underlying the development and stress resistance of economic forests, and innovatively proposed that flavonoid secondary metabolites can act as signals and play an important regulatory role. Over the past five years, centering on "flavonoid metabolic regulation and signaling functions", she has conducted systematic research on flower development, fruiting, and pollen control in economic forest plants, and achieved a series of high-level original results.

Topic

Study on the Regulation Mechanism of Flavonoids in Promoting Forest Tree Development and Stress Tolerance

Abstract

Life science has entered a new era featuring multi-dimensional integration and predictive design. RNA epigenetic modification, nano-biodelivery, intelligent plant regulation, and interdisciplinary integration of agriculture and forestry have emerged as core frontier research topics. Focusing on flavonoid secondary metabolism in economic forest trees, this study integrates multi-omics, epigenetics and nano-biotechnology to dissect the multi-layer molecular networks through which flavonoids coordinately regulate floral development and broad-spectrum stress resistance, aligning with the theme of interdisciplinary innovation of the forum. Hyperoside is identified as the core signaling molecule in this research. On one hand, it remodels the microfilament cytoskeleton via the CDPK6-MYB30 pathway and bZIP protein phase transition, thereby accelerating pollen germination and pollen tube elongation, prolonging flowering period and improving fruit set rate. On the other hand, this work deciphers immune pathways including m6A methylation-mediated VIR1/2, lncRNA-NAC and WRKY-NLR, and constructs a theoretical model illustrating how flavonoid metabolic flux confers tolerance to drought, aluminum toxicity and fungal diseases. It elaborates a novel regulatory paradigm interconnecting RNA epigenetic modification, secondary metabolism and plant immunity. In this study, a ZIF-8 nanocarrier-based in vivo delivery system for flavonoids and oligonucleotides is constructed, breaking the bottleneck of genetic transformation in forest trees. A series of green plant-derived regulatory agents are developed and applied to nearly ten thousand mu of economic forests, achieving stable yield and efficiency improvement. In future research, multi-scale omics and intelligent biological models will be combined to connect the translational chain from flavonoid metabolism in forest trees to human health, and explore new strategies for AI-enabled precision breeding of stress-resistant forest trees. We look forward to exchanging interdisciplinary innovative ideas covering metabolic epigenetics, nano-biotechnology and smart agriculture & forestry with experts from various fields at the forum, and promoting the industrial translation of fundamental mechanistic research into green agriculture.

Dr. Yin Li, Associate Professor

College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

Biography

Dr. Yin Li is currently an Associate Professor at College of Life Science & Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, HUST (Wuhan, China). I have been granted several Provincial Young Talent Awards (“Bairen” Program and “Chutian” Program). I am also the deputy director of International Science and Technology Cooperation Base (Genetic Engineering) of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China. I obtained PhD degree in Life Sciences at HUST and accomplished postdoc training at Rutgers University, U.S.A. (Prof. Joachim Messing as my supervisor). I have been studied Poaceae crop genomics and focused on establishing new comparative and evolutionary genomics tools to facilitate reverse-genetic gene discovery related to abiotic stress tolerance and carbohydrate metabolism. I have been awarded for several grants, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Provincial International Science and Technology Cooperation Program. Representative research works have been published on high-impact journals, Journal of Advanced Research, Plant Biotechnology Journal, Food Hydrocolloids, Plant Physiology, etc. I also serve as Editorial Board Member or Youth Editor for several SCI journals, including iMeta, Scientific Data, New Crops, Grain & Oil Science and Technology, and Plants.

Topic

Gene Mining and Functional Studies of Abiotic-Stress Regulatory Genes in Wheat Facilitated by Evolutionary Genomics

Abstract

Reverse genetic studies conducted in the plant with a complex or polyploidy genome enriched with large gene families (like wheat) often meet challenges in identifying the key candidate genes related to important traits and prioritizing the genes for functional experiments. To overcome the above-mentioned challenges of reverse genetics, this work aims to establish an efficient multi-species strategy for genome-wide gene identification and prioritization of the key candidate genes. We established the integrative gene duplication and genome-wide analysis (iGG analysis) as a strategy for pinpointing key candidate genes deserving functional research. The iGG captures the evolution, and the expansion/contraction of large gene families across phylogeny-related species and integrates spatial–temporal expression information for gene function inference. Transgenic approaches were also employed to functional validation. In particular, we leverage the iGG strategy and several QTL/GWAS genetic loci and identified several candidate genes regulating drought stress tolerance in wheat (TaCIPK17, TaPP2C-a5, TaPP2C-a6, and TaDREB26). We used molecular genetics and biochemical approaches to uncover their molecular mechanisms underlying the drought tolerance involvement. This approach and these identified genes provide valuable resource for wheat genetic improvement towards better abiotic stress tolerance.