Bian Wu: The Plant Cell First Author

Bian Wu, first author of “Natural variation in WHITE-CORE RATE 1 regulates redox homeostasis in rice endosperm to affect grain quality”

Current Position: Ph.D. at Huazhong Agricultural University

Education: Ph.D., National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University

Non-scientific Interests: planting, diving, swimming

Brief bio:

In 2013, I joined the research group of Prof. Yuqing He at National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement of Huazhong Agricultural University, where I did my M.S. and Ph.D. study in the field of rice quality. Prof. Yuqing He focused on the study of the improvement of rice quality and gene cloning of important traits, such as grain shape, chalkiness and grain storage substance. From a lot of documents, I learned that chalkiness is an important trait of rice quality and plays a key role in production. However, there are few studies related to the natural variation of rice chalkiness, and the excellent chalkiness alleles also need to be explored. Based on the preliminary mapping results of chalkiness QTL of the research group, I identified the gene WCR1 affecting rice chalkiness by map-based cloning. We found a functional variation site in the promoter region through natural variation analysis. Moreover, we proposed model of the role of WCR1 in regulating chalkiness. In future study, I will continue to engage in rice quality research, and hope that these findings can be applied to the process of agricultural production to improve rice quality.

2013年，我加入了华中农业大学作物遗传改良国家重点实验室何予卿教授的研究团队，并开展了稻米品质方面的研究。何予卿教授致力于水稻品质的改良和重要性状的基因克隆，如粒型、垩白、籽粒储藏物质等等。从大量的文献中，我了解到垩白是水稻品质的一个重要性状，在生产实践中起着非常关键的作用。然而，与水稻垩白自然变异相关的研究还非常少，优良的垩白等位基因也有待进一步挖掘。基于课题组垩白QTL的初定位结果，我通过图位克隆法鉴定到一个影响水稻垩白的基因WCR1。通过自然变异分析，我们在启动子区域关联到一个功能性变异位点。此外，我们还提出了WCR1参与垩白调控的模式。在未来的研究中，我将继续从事水稻品质相关的研究，并且希望这些研究成果能够转化到农业生产的过程中，以此来提高水稻品质。