Recognizing Plant Physiology author Jiani Yang
Jiani Yang, first author of The SvFUL2 transcription factor is required for inflorescence determinacy and timely flowering in Setaria viridis
Current Position: Postdoctoral Associate at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Education: B.S. in Agronomy from Shandong Agricultural University, China
M.S. in Genetics from Nanjing Agricultural University, China
Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology from University Florida, USA
Non-scientific Interests: Hiking and travel
Brief bio:
When I first took a plant biology course during college, I was fascinated by the precise control of plant developmental processes; one nucleotide change in a gene could lead to a completely different developmental outcome. To learn more about plant development, I joined Dr. Donald McCarty’s lab at the University of Florida for my Ph.D, where I studied a group of maize embryo lethal plastid-translation mutants. My work revealed how defects in plastid translation affected embryonic shoot apical meristem maintenance and organ initiation. Upon completion of my Ph.D, I joined Dr. Andrea Eveland’s lab at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center as a post-doc where my current work focuses on dissecting the gene networks that control inflorescence branching and meristem differentiation in maize and Setaria viridis (green foxtail), a model panicoid grass. In this manuscript we show a single loss-of-function mutation in SvFul2, an AP1/FUL-like gene in S. viridis, is sufficient to confer both strong flowering time and inflorescence determinacy phenotypes despite its overlapping expression pattern with three closely related paralogs. By connecting gene network analysis with disruption of SvFul2, we identified important regulatory hubs at the intersect of floral transition and inflorescence determinacy. My interest in plant development continues to grow as my research deepens. My future goal is to better elucidate the gene regulatory networks that regulate meristem identity and determinacy in grass inflorescences and how they interface with plant growth hormones.
姓名： 杨佳妮
目前职位： Donald Danforth植物科学中心博士后
教育背景： 山东农业大学农学专业学士
南京农业大学遗传学硕士
佛罗里达大学植物分子与细胞生物学专业博士
兴趣爱好： 徒步和旅行
个人简介：
大学期间第一次参加植物生物学课程时，我就对植物发育过程的精确调控产生了浓厚的兴趣。基因中一个核苷酸的变化就能导致全然不同的发育结果。为了深入学习有关植物发育的知识，我加入了佛罗里达大学Donald McCarty博士的实验室，攻读博士学位。期间我研究了一系列由质体内蛋白翻译功能缺陷所导致的玉米胚致死突变体。我的工作揭示了质体内蛋白翻译功能的缺陷如何影响玉米胚顶端分生组织的发育和器官的发生。获得博士学位后，我加入了Donald Danforth植物科学中心Andrea Eveland博士的实验室，开展博士后研究工作。目前我的研究重点是剖析控制玉米和和黍亚科模式植物狗尾草的花序分支和分生组织分化的基因调控网络。在此文章中，我们报道了狗尾草的AP1/Ful-like 基因家族中的SvFul2单个基因突变能够显著影响植物的开花时间和花序发育。通过结合基因表达调控网络分析与Svful2突变体转录组分析，我们鉴定出了联结成花转变和花序决定性的重要调控枢纽。随着研究的深入，我对植物发育的兴趣不断增长。我未来的研究目标是更好地阐明控制谷类作物花序发育的基因调控网络以及它们与植物生长激素的相互联系。
