Qingyi Yu

Biography

Dr. Qingyi Yu is Associate Professor, Plant Molecular Biologist Department Head for Academics, Plant Pathogenic Fungi & MycotoxicologyDepartment of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Texas A and M University,United States Of America got PPh.D., Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, 2003. University of Hawaii Manoa.

Research Interest

lower Development and Sex Chromosome Evolution in Papaya: Unlike most animal species that produce unisexual individuals, the majority of flowering plants produce flowers that are ‘perfect’ and contain both ‘male’ and ‘female’ organs. Less than 10% of plant species produce flowers, which are unisexual. Papaya is a polygamous plant species producing both dioecious and perfect flowers and provides an opportunity for studying flower development in dioecious and hermaphrodite plant species. The sex determination system in papaya is particularly intriguing, not only because it has three sex types within the species, also because it shows frequent sex reversal caused by environmental factors. Recent studies showed that sex determination in papaya is controlled by a pair of primitive sex chromosomes. We are cloning the sex determination genes in papaya and performing comparative genomics analysis to understand the origin and evolution of sex chromosomes in Caricaceae. Genomic Dissection of the complex polyploidy sugarcane genome for energy cane improvement: As a C4 plant, sugarcane (Saccharum spp. Poaceae) has been recognized as one of the world’s most efficient crops in converting solar energy into chemical energy. Sugarcane is also among the crops having the most favorable input/output ratios. However, the large genome size, high ploidy level, interspecific hybridization and aneuploidy make sugarcane one of the most complex genomes and have long hampered genome research in sugarcane. Modern sugarcane cultivars are derived from interspecific hybridization between S. officinarum and S. spontaneum with 80-90% of the genome from S. officinarum and 10-20% of the genome from S. spontaneum. We have constructed bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries of S. officinarum LA Purple (2n=8x=80) and S. spontaneum haploid clone AP85-441 (2n=4x=32). These two BAC libraries have been used to screen for the major genes involved in Sucrose, Lignin, and Cellulose biosynthesis pathways. We are sequencing selected BAC clones to study allelic variations of major genes affecting biomass yield in sugar cane aiming to understand the complex mechanisms leading to the superior productivity of sugarcane. Construction of a high density genetic map of pineapple for genome sequencing and marker-assisted selection: Pineapple is the most important economic species among the crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plant species and could become the best representative of this under-explored node of the angiosperms. CAM plant species are particularly adapted to arid environments and exhibit a unique water-conserving photosynthetic pathway. Approximately 6% of all vascular plant species in 33 families and 328 genera engage in Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), making it the second most common form of photosynthesis. Our long-term goal is to develop pineapple as a model system for CAM plant species to identify, characterize, and clone agronomically important genes, and to elucidate the genome structure and organization of this under-explored node of the angiosperms.