Chong Ren: Plant Physiology First Author

Chong Ren, first author of “Advances in understanding cold tolerance in grapevine”

Education: M.S. from Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. D.S. from Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Current Position: Assistant researcher at Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Non-scientific interests: Reading, basketball, cooking, and music.

Brief bio: I luckily joined the team of Prof. Zhenchang Liang at Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing when I received my PhD in 2019. My projects focus on the mechanisms of cold response in grapevine, and I also try to use genome editing technologies (GET) to improve the traits of grapevine. The currently cultivated cultivars of Vitis vinifera worldwide exhibit poor tolerance to cold stress and should be covered with soil to overwinter safely in northern China. This cultivation pattern increases the production cost and causes damages to the environment. Research on grapevine cold tolerance and development of cultivars with excellent cold hardiness have therefore been an important research project in our lab. Though studies on cold responses in grapevine have been reported in recent years, our knowledge of the mechanisms is still fragmented, and a comprehensive and systematic overview of these advances is still lacking. We summarized recent advances in cold response in grapevine and discussed possible mechanisms involved in cold tolerance at the physiological and molecular levels, pointing out the significant role of wild Vitis species such as V. amurensis in the field of cold tolerance research. In addition, we provided some approaches to improve cold tolerance in grapevine, including interspecific hybridization and genomics- and GET-assisted breeding. In short, a better understanding of cold signaling in grapevine would facilitate the breeding of grapevines with improved cold tolerance and high fruit quality in the future.

 第一作者：任冲

当前职位：中国科学院植物研究所助理研究员

教育经历：中国科学院大学亚热带农业生态研究所理学硕士，中国科学院大学植物研究所理学博士

兴趣爱好：阅读，篮球，烹饪，音乐

个人简介：

我于2019年博士毕业后有幸加入中国科学院植物研究所梁振昌研究员团队，主要从事葡萄抗寒分子机理研究，同时也利用CRISPR/Cas9等基因编辑技术进行葡萄性状的遗传改良。目前世界上广泛栽培的欧亚种葡萄品种抗寒性较差，在我国北方地区需要埋土防寒才能安全越冬，增加了生产成本并容易引发环境问题。因此，葡萄抗寒研究和育种是我们目前研究的重要课题之一。近年来，关于葡萄抗寒的研究陆续有报道，但我们对于葡萄抗寒机理的认知仍然是“零散的”，缺乏系统的梳理与总结。在本研究中，我们对目前葡萄抗寒研究中取得的成果进行了归纳与总结，在生理水平与分子水平对葡萄的抗寒机理进行了讨论，明确了山葡萄等野生资源在葡萄抗寒研究中的重要作用；此外，我们也提出了增强葡萄抗寒性的可能策略，包括种间杂交与基因组学、基因编辑技术辅助育种等，这将有助于我们更好地理解葡萄抗寒的背后机理，并在未来创造出高抗优质的葡萄新品种。