Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Chunmei Zhu

Chunmei Zhu, co-first author of Rice and Arabidopsis homologs of yeast CHROMOSOME TRANSMISSION FIDELITY PROTEIN 4 commonly interact with Polycomb complexes but exert divergent regulatory functions

Current Position: Postdoctoral position, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University

Education: September, 2005-June, 2009: Huazhong Agricultural University, Bachelor’s degree; September, 2010-December, 2018: Huazhong Agricultural University, Doctorate degree

Non-scientific Interests: Yoga

Brief bio: In September 2010, I entered the National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University to pursue a doctorate degree，mainly studying the plant morphology and flowering regulation of rice. After my Ph. D. in 2018, I continued my postdoctoral research in the National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, the main research position is protein modification mediating heading date regulation. Loss-of-function DRW1 in rice caused a severe dwarf phenotype, it was found that the drw1 plant was semi-dwarf by agronomic character investigation, the stem internodes became shorter and the seed and other organs became smaller, but the heading date of drw1 mutant was not affected. Co-isolation and complementation test showed that the phenotypic defects of drw1 mutant were caused by the functional deletion of DRW1 gene. The results of subcellular localization, paraffin section and flow cytometry analysis showed that DRW1 is located in the nucleus and the loss of DRW1 function leads to cell cycle arrest, not cell size but cell number reduction, eventually, the drw1 mutant showed a dwarfing phenotype. My another research position is flowering regulation of rice, the ubiquitination and degradation of HD1 and OsELF3 mediated by E3 ubiquitin ligase HAF1 was analyzed, and the molecular mechanism of protein degradation mediated by HAF1 in rice heading date regulation under short and long day conditions was elucidated, respectively, the results were both published in the Plant Cell. At present, I continued the research on the regulatory network mediated by HAF1 in rice heading date regulation.

 

姓名：朱春梅

目前职位：华中农业大学生命科学技术学院博士后

教育背景：华中农业大学，发育生物学 博士

兴趣爱好：瑜珈

个人研究简介：2010年进入华中农业大学生命科学技术学院吴昌银教授课题组攻读博士学位，研究水稻株型和成花调控。2018年博士毕业后，继续在华中农业大学吴昌银教授课题组从事博士后研究，主要研究方向为泛素化降解介导的水稻抽穗期调控。

昊昌银教授课题组克隆的drw1突变体表现出矮化表型，农艺性状考察发现植株变矮，茎杆节间变短，种子等器官变小，但植株抽穗期不受影响。共分离和互补验证表明drw1的表型缺陷是由DRW1基因功能缺失引起。亚细胞定位、石蜡切片和流式细胞监测实验说明了DRW1定位于细胞核且DRW1功能缺失将导致细胞周期进程受阻，并不影响细胞大小而是细胞数目变少，最终导致drw1突变体矮化表型。成花调控研究方面，解析了E3泛素连接酶HAF1介导Hd1和OsELF3泛素化降解，分别阐明了泛素化降解介导的水稻适应短日照和长日照条件抽穗的分子机制，相关成果均发表在the Plant Cell杂志。目前仍在继续研究泛素化降解介导的水稻抽穗期调控网络。