Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Pingxian Zhang

Pingxian Zhang, 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: Ph.D. candidate, Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Education: B.S. &M.S. in Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University

Non-scientific Interests: Badminton; Ancient Chinese poems and literature

Brief bio: Since 2017, I joined into Dr. Xiaofeng Gu’s lab in Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China. In our lab, we want to know epigenetic regulation of developmental cues and environmental factors in rice, using combined epigenomics and other ‘omics-based ‘Big Data’. This research reveals that CTF4 orthologs EOL1 in Arabidopsis and DRW1 in rice are both expressed uniquely in dividing cells, commonly interact with several Polycomb complex subunits, and promote H3K27me3 deposition, but their regulatory functions diverged substantially during plant evolution.

 

姓名：张平贤

目前职位：中国农业科学院生物技术研究所 博士研究生

教育经历：华中农业大学果树学硕士（2016）；华中农业大学园艺学学士（2014）

兴趣爱好：羽毛球；中国古诗词文化

个人简介：

2017年加入中国农业科学院生物技术研究所谷晓峰课题组攻读博士学位。实验室的研究重点主要通过表观遗传学、合成生物学、生物学大数据等多学科交叉，开展新核酸修饰调控水稻高产稳产的机制解析和智能设计改良。本课题主要研究酵母CTF4同源蛋白在单子叶模式植物水稻和双子叶模式植物拟南芥中均在分化旺盛细胞组织中表达，共同与多梳家族蛋白成员互作，并促进组蛋白H3第27位赖氨酸三甲基化，但它们调控的生物学功能却由于植物进化而呈现不同的分化。