Xuan Du: The Plant Cell First Author

Xuan Du, first author of “Structure of plant RNA-DEPENDENT RNA POLYMERASE 2, an enzyme involved in small interfering RNA production”

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr. Sisi Li’s research group at Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, International Cancer Center, Shenzhen University Health Science Center, China.

Education: PhD in Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. B. Sc. in Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University, China.

Non-scientific Interests: basketball, tennis

Brief Bio: During my PhD, I worked in Dr. Jiamu Du’s lab, and mainly focused on the structural study of plant proteins, which involved in the RNA directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway. In the past few years, I was skilled in solving the crystal structure of proteins and finished several protein-protein or protein-DNA complex structures. With the development of cryo-electron microscopy, more and more structure studies carry out by means of this technology. So, I also learned the cryo-EM technology and applied it in my research, such as the structure study of plant RDR2, which can convert the single strand RNA into double strand RNA. In the future, I’m still going to use cryo-EM technology to conduct the structural studies on proteins involving in RNA processing, not only in plants but also other eukaryon.