Publications by authors named "Meiling Ming"

, usually referred to as a "living fossil," is widely planted in many countries because of its medicinal value and beautiful appearance. Owing to ginkgo's high resistance to drought stress, ginkgo seedlings can even survive withholding water for several days without exhibiting leaf wilting and desiccation. To assess the physiological and transcriptomic mechanisms involved in the drought stress and re-watering responses of , ginkgo seedlings were subjected to drought treatment for 15 d (D_15 d) and 22 d (D_22 d) until they had severely wilted, followed by re-watering for 3 d (D_Re3 d) to restore normal growth.

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Establishing plant regeneration systems and efficient genetic transformation techniques plays a crucial role in plant functional genomics research and the development of new crop varieties. The inefficient methods of transformation and regeneration of recalcitrant species and the genetic dependence of the transformation process remain major obstacles. With the advancement of plant meristematic tissues and somatic embryogenesis research, several key regulatory genes, collectively known as developmental regulators, have been identified.

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Article Synopsis
  • CRISPR/Cas systems have potential in genome engineering for fruit crops like pear, but challenges like genomic heterozygosity and low editing efficiency have hindered their use.
  • Researchers developed a highly efficient CRISPR toolbox for both loss-of-function and gain-of-function research in pears, achieving nearly 100% editing efficiency with a specific CRISPR/Cas9 system.
  • They also established CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) for gene activation and successfully modified biosynthesis pathways for anthocyanin and lignin, advancing functional genomics and molecular breeding in pears.
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  • * The recent release of draft whole-genome sequences opens up new research avenues in pear evolution, domestication, and molecular breeding.
  • * This review discusses advancements in pear genetics and breeding, highlights resources for gene identification, and considers future opportunities for "pear-omics" research.
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Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas12b is a newly emerged genome engineering system. Here, we compared Cas12b from Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris (Aac), Alicyclobacillus acidiphilus (Aa), Bacillus thermoamylovorans (Bth) and Bacillus hisashii (Bh) for genome engineering in rice, an important crop. We found AaCas12b was more efficient than AacCas12b and BthCas12b for targeted mutagenesis, which was further demonstrated in multiplexed genome editing.

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Knowledge of the genetic changes that occurred during the domestication and improvement of perennial trees at the RNA level is limited. Here, we used RNA sequencing analysis to compare representative sets of wild, landrace, and improved accessions of pear () to gain insight into the genetic changes associated with domestication and improvement. A close population relationship and similar nucleotide diversity was observed between the wild and landrace groups, whereas the improved group had substantially reduced nucleotide diversity.

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  • Scientists studied ERF genes in the Chinese white pear to learn how they help with plant growth and stress responses.
  • They found 155 ERF genes in pears and discovered that some genes are more active in wild pears than in cultivated ones, especially when the fruit is growing.
  • The research also showed that some of these genes help the plant deal with drought, which means they might be really important for plants to survive tough conditions.
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transcription factors play significant roles in plant developmental processes such as floral organ conformation, flowering time, and fruit development. Pear (), as the third-most crucial temperate fruit crop, has been fully sequenced. However, there is limited information about the family and its functional divergence in pear.

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Red fruits are popular and widely accepted by consumers because of an enhanced appearance and enriched anthocyanins. The molecular mechanism of anthocyanin regulation in red-skinned pear (Pyrus) has been studied, and the genes encoding the biosynthetic steps and several transcription factors (TFs) have been characterized. In this study, a candidate R2R3 MYB TF, PyMYB114, was identified by linkage to the quantitative trait loci (QTL) for red skin color on linkage group 5 in a population of Chinese pear (Pyrus bretschneideri).

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