Recognizing Plant Physiology authors: Xiaomin Zheng

Xiaomin Zheng, co-first author of Full-length annotation with multi-strategy RNA-seq uncovers transcriptional regulation of lncRNAs in cotton

Current Position: Ph.D. candidate, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University

Education: Ph.D. in Botany, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, China

Non-scientific Interests: reading and watching movies

Brief bio: After finishing my undergraduate education in 2015, I was fortunate to join the cotton functional genomics research team of Academician Yuxian Zhu. During the Doctor’s period, I was engaged in the research on the transcriptome and proteomics of cotton. In this study, we integrated multi-strategy RNA-seq data and constructed a comprehensive and accurate lncRNA atlas in 16 tissues and 5 stress-treated seedlings for cotton G. arboreum. We revealed that the transcription of plant lncRNAs may also have dynamic switching of transcription start sites (TSS), transcription termination sites (TTS) and alternative splicing in different developmental stages or between tissues. In addition, we validated the transcriptional regulatory role of lnc-Ga13g0352 via ChIRP-seq and VIGS assay, indicating that the lncRNA might act as a dual-functional regulator either to activate or inhibit the transcription of target genes.

 

姓名：郑晓敏

职位：武汉大学生命科学学院，在读博士

教育经历：武汉大学生命科学学院，植物学，博士

兴趣爱好：阅读、看电影

个人经历：2015年本科毕业后我幸运地加入了武汉大学朱玉贤院士的研究棉花功能基因组研究团队。博士期间，我主要从事棉花转录组学和蛋白质组学的研究工作。在这项研究中，我们以亚洲棉16个组织和5个胁迫条件的幼苗为实验材料，利用多种高通量RNA测序技术对亚洲棉基因组中的长非编码RNA（lncRNA）进行了全面准确的注释与分析。我们发现植物lncRNA的转录在不同发育阶段或组织间也可能普遍存在转录起始位点和转录终止位点的动态切换（TSS/TES Selection），以及选择性剪接等现象。此外，我们通过ChIRP-seq和VIGS实验验证了lnc-Ga13g0352的转录调控作用，表明lncRNA可以通过激活或抑制不同靶标基因的转录，发挥双重调控功能。