Soybean Molecular Biology and Molecular Design Breeding
Team name
Soybean Molecular Biology and Molecular Design Breeding
Principal Investigator
Research Objectives
Soybeans are an important food crop all around the world, and are also a major source of oil and protein. Soybeans are the typical short-day crops and are highly sensitive to day length.In photoperiod-sensitive short-day crops, long-day conditions hinder the initiation of flowering. Photoperiod regulation of soybean flowering time not only affects its regional adaptability, but also affects yield. Therefore, mastering the molecular regulation mechanism of photoperiod-induced soybean flowering has important guiding significance for cultivating high-yield soybeans. In addition, soybeans are susceptible to stress during their growth and development (saline-alkali, drought, and high temperature, etc.). Therefore, discovering and utilizing key stress-tolerant genes are crucial to developing new stress-tolerant soybean varieties. This research group will comprehensively use molecular genetics, genomics, cell biology, biochemistry and other methods to create and collect chromatin modification-related mutants in soybean, reveal the chromatin modification regulationmechanism in soybean growth and development by external environmental factors (photoperiod, stress, etc.), and explore the genetic network of the interaction between external environmental factors and soybean. Our research will provide a theoretical basis for soybean molecular design breeding.
The main research directions are as follows:
l The role and mechanism of chromatin modification in soybean flowering
l The mechanism and genetic network of soybean chromatin modification factors in soybean response to environmental stress
l Germplasm enhancement and genetic improvement of soybean
Team members
（姓名，学位，专业，职称，在本团队从事的工作）
（团队核心成员也可以包括与PI相似的CV，可通过点击姓名进入；请根据需要提供团队核心成员的CV，一般应具有副高级职称或博士学位；请提供核心成员最新登记照片或头像比较大的工作照一张）
l Liu Xiulin, Ph.D. in Botany, assistant professor, The function of histone demethylation in soybean adaptation to environment.
l Fang Yisheng, Ph.D. in crop genetics and breeding, assistant professor,, trait discovery for soybean abiotic stress tolerance
l Na Zheng, Ph.D. in plant pathology, assistant professor, histone lysine methylation in soybean.
l Yaxi Zhu，Ph.D in biochemistry and molecular biology, research associate, to explore the mechanism of soybean FT regulation
Research Projects
l Elucidating photoperiodic flowering-time regulation by two homologous histone marker readers in Arabidopsis thaliana, National Natural Science Funding (Grant no.31970327), 2020.01-2023.12; Project objectives: This project will reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying FT regulation by two homologous histone marker readers, and explore the dynamic control of FT expression by chromatin modifications in response to long-day.
l Study on the role and molecular mechanism of soybean histone reading proteins in photoperiodic regulation of flowering. Shandong Provincial Science Foundation for Outstanding Youth (Grant no. ZR2021YQ16), 2022.01-2024.12; Project objectives: This project will reveal the function of histone reading protein homologous in soybean photoperiodic flowering pathway, and analyze the molecular mechanism of soybean FT expression by chromatin modifications under short-day conditions.
l The study of soybean histone demethylase JMJ in photoperiodic regulation of flowering time. Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant no. ZR2022QC262). 2023.01-2025.12;Project objectives: This project will reveal the response of soybean histone demethylase to photoperiod and the regulation of flowering time.
l Molecular mechanism of GmFRL3a regulates drought tolerance in soybean, Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant no. ZR2023QC085). 2024.01-2026.12; Project objectives:This project will reveal the GmFRL3a functions in soybean flowering time and drought stress response.
l Screening of Soybean Salt-Alkali Tolerant Germplasm Resources and Mining of Related Genes, Weifang Science and Technology Planning Project (Grant no. 2021ZJ1299), 2021.10-2023.12;Project objectives: This project will focus on soybean salt-tolerant germplasm resources collection, evaluation and gene discovery and allele mining for salt tolerance
Research Achievements
Revealing the molecular mechanism of plant gene expression regulationbyα-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (Science, 2023: 381. eadf8822. 10.1126, cooperation with Yuehui He Lab).
In eukaryotes, histone methylation modification plays an important role in regulating chromatin structure, gene transcription and other chromatin-related processes. Jumonji C (JmjC) domain-containing demethylases (JMJs) play an important role in dynamically controlling histone methylation levels. However, the universal mechanism underlying the regulation of JMJ activity remains unclear. We reported that the rate-limiting enzyme of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (KGDH), enters the nucleus in response to light signals.KGDH interacts with JMJs proteins and inhibits the histone demethylation activity of JMJs by competitively metabolizing α-ketoglutarate, thereby regulating histone methylation modification at the genome-wide level and regulating a series of gene expression.
This research has been published in Science titled as “Control of histone demethylation by nuclear-localized α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase”, Science also published a review article “Metabolic control of transcription”for our research, indicating that light changes histone methylation in plants through nuclear α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase.
Selected Publications
Fei Huang #, Xiao Luo#, Yang Ou#, &Zhaoxu Gao#, Qiming Tang, Zhenzhen Chu, Xinguang Zhu, Yuehui He*.2023. Control of histone demethylation by nuclear-localized α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase. Science. 381. eadf8822. 10.1126/science.adf8822.
Zhicheng Zhang#, Xiao Luo#,Yupeng Yang,Yuehui He*.2023. Cold induction of nuclear FRIGIDA condensation in Arabidopsis.Nature 619, E27–E32. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06189-z
Zicong Li#, Xiao Luo#, Yang Ou#, Huijun Jiao, Li Peng, Xing Fu, Alberto P Macho, RenyiLiu&Yuehui He*.2021.JASMONATE-ZIM DOMAIN proteins engage Polycomb chromatin modifiers to modulate Jasmonate signaling in Arabidopsis. Molecular Plant,14(5):732-747.
Zhaohan Zhang, Wanpeng Wang, Shahid Ali, Xiao Luo*, Linan Xie*.2022. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated multiple knockouts in abscisic acid receptor genes reduced the sensitivity to ABA during soybean seed germination. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022,18;23(24):16173.
Myeongjune Jeon, Goowon Jeong, Yupeng Yang, Xiao Luo, Daesong Jeong, Jinseul Kyung, Youbong Hyun, Yuehui H, Ilha Lee.2023. Vernalization-triggered expression of the antisense transcript COOLAIR is mediated by CBF genes. eLife,12:e84594. doi: 10.7554/eLife.84594.
Hong Zhai, Zhao Wan, Shuang Jiao, Jingwen Zhou, Kun Xu, Haiyang Nan, Yingxiang Liu, Shangshang Xiong, Rong Fan, Jinlong Zhu, Wenting Jiang, Tian Pang, Xiao Luo, Hongyan Wu, Guang Yang, Xi Bai, Fanjiang Kong, Zhengjun Xia.2022.GmMDE genes bridge the maturity gene E1 and florigens in photoperiodic regulation of flowering in soybean. Plant Physiology,189(2), 1021–1036
Honorablesand Awards
Yuandu Scholar from Weifangcity forXiao Luo (2021)
Taishan Scholar-Young Expert from Shandong Province for Xiao Luo (2022)
Outstanding Scientific and Technological Workers of Weifang City for Xiao Luo (2023)