Xun Liao: Plant Physiology First Author

Xun Liao, first author of “Mitochondrion-encoded circular RNAs are widespread and translatable in plants”

Current Position: Postgraduate student, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

Education: B.S., College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

Non-scientific Interests: Watching movies, history

Brief bio: I am a postgraduate student in Dr. Yafeng Zhang’s lab at South China Agricultural University, and my research interest focuses on the development of an algorithm suited for the identification of mitochondrion-encoded circRNAs (mcircRNAs) in plants. In our preliminary experiments, we found mcircRNA were accumulated in plant mitochondria, but the commonly used circRNA identification algorithms could not efficiently detect them. To solve this problem, we developed a circRNA identification algorithm based on the general features of plant mitochondrial genomes, and named it as MeCi. By using MeCi, we showed mcircRNAs were prevalent in plants, and they had distinct features from nucleus-encoded circRNAs. Furthermore, by analysis of polysome/ribosomal profiling and MS-based proteomics data, we demonstrated mcircRNAs were translated into proteins in plants.

 

姓名：廖珣

现在职位：在读硕士研究生，华南农业大学农学院

教育经历：本科，华南农业大学农学院

兴趣爱好：看电影，历史

个人简介：我现在华南农业大学农学院张亚锋老师研究组，攻读硕士学位。在研究生期间，我的主要研究方向是玉米线粒体基因组编码环状RNA（mitochondrion-encoded circular RNA，mcircRNA）的识别算法开发和功能研究。在前期研究中，我们发现植物中存在mcircRNA，但目前常用的circRNA识别算法不能有效识别它们。为了解决这个问题，我们根据植物线粒体基因组特征，开发了一款适合植物mcircRNA的识别算法，即MeCi。使用MeCi，我们证明mcircRNA在植物中广泛存在，并且发现它们与细胞核基因组编码circRNA具有显著不同的特征。结合线粒体多聚核糖分析和质谱结果，我们证明植物mcircRNA可以和核糖体结合，并且可以翻译蛋白质。