Crop Flowering & Environmental Epigenetics
Team name
Crop Flowering & Environmental Epigenetics
Principal Investigator
Research Objectives
Chromatin modifications and remodeling play critical roles in chromatin-templated processes such as gene expression in eukaryotes. We explore epigenetic or chromatin-mediated mechanisms for plant-environment interactions, with a focus on environmental regulation of the timing of developmental transition to flowering (flowering time) in crops. We are interested in how prolonged cold (in winter) and long-day signals (in spring) promote the transition to flowering in winter bread wheat and other plants. In addition, using biotechnological tools we aim to improve the agronomic traits of flowering time to enhance crop yield and quality in cereal crops as well as other economically important crops.
Team members
l De Niu, Ph.D., Research Fellow (Associate Professor), Wheat vernalization regulation
l Chao Shen, Ph.D., Research Fellow (Associate Professor), Structural biology
l Xiangxiong Kong, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Wheat flowering-time regulation
l Xiang You, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Wheat flowering-time regulation
l YongxingZhang, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Wheat flowering-time regulation
l Xin Li, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Wheat vernalization regulation
Research Projects
l Molecular design breeding and precision testing of grain and oil crops (2023-2025),Key R&D Program of Shandong Province, China. Project objectives: Characterization of several regulatory genes of flowering time in winter bread wheat and genetic improvement of wheat flowering time.
Selected Publications
Huang F, Luo X, Ou Y, Gao Z, Tang Q, Chu Z, Zhu X and He Y. (2023) Control of histone demethylation by nuclear-localized α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase. Science 381: eadf8822.
Zhang Z, Luo X, Yang, Y and He Y. (2023) Cold induction of nuclear FRIGIDA condensation in Arabidopsis. Nature 7969: E27-E32.
Gao Z, Li Y, Ou Y, Yin M, Chen T, Zeng X, Li R and He Y. (2023) A pair of readers of bivalent chromatin mediate formation of Polycomb-based "memory of cold" in plants. Molecular Cel, 83: 1109-1124.
Xu G, Tao Z and He Y. (2022) Embryonic reactivation of FLOWERING LOCUS C by ABSCISIC ACID-INSENSITIVE 3 establishes the vernalization requirement in each Arabidopsis generation. Plant Cell 34: 2205-2221.
Li Z, Luo X, Ou Y, Jiao H, Peng L, Fu X, Macho AP, Liu R and He Y. (2021) JASMONATE-ZIM DOMAIN proteins engage Polycomb chromatin modifiers to modulate Jasmonate signaling in Arabidopsis. Molecular Plant 14: 732-747.