Xu Yao, PhD

　　　　Assistant Professor

　　　　State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany

　　　　Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences

　　　　20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Haidian, Beijing 100093, China

　　　　Email: yaoxu@ibcas.ac.cn

　　　　Research Interests:

　　　　My current interests are to explore the processes, patterns, driving forces and mechanisms underlying the diversification of petal shape and structure by using strategies of plant evolutionary and developmental biology.

　　　　Education:

　　　　2008.9-2012.6 B.S. (Forestry), College of Forestry, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China

　　　　2012.9-2019.6 Ph.D. (Botany), State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, CAS, Beijing, China (advisor: Prof. Hongzhi Kong)

　　　　Professional Experience:

　　　　2019.7-present Assisstant Professor, State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, CAS, Beijing, China

　　　　Grants:

　　　　Molecular mechanisms underlying the morphogenesis and diversification of peltate petals in the Ranunculaceae; National Natural Science Foundation of China; 32000177; 2021.01-2023.12

　　　　Publications:

　　　　Liao H#, Fu X#; Zhao H#, Cheng J, Zhang R, Yao X, Duan X, Shan H, Kong H*. 2020. The morphology, molecular development and ecological function of pseudonectaries on Nigella damascena (Ranunculaceae) petals. Nature Communications, 11(1): 1777.

　　　　Zhang R#, Fu X#, Zhao C#, Cheng J#, Liao H, Wang P, Yao X, Duan X, Yuan Y, Xu G, Kramer E, Shan H, Kong H*. 2020. Identification of the key regulatory genes involved in elaborate petal development and specialized character formation in Nigella damascena (Ranunculaceae). The Plant Cell, 32(10): 3095-3112.

　　　　Yao X, Zhang W, Duan X, Yuan Y, Zhang R, Shan H, Kong H*. 2019. The making of elaborate petals in Nigella through developmental repatterning. New Phytologist, 223: 385-396.

　　　　Shan H, Cheng J, Zhang R, Yao X, Kong H*. 2019. Developmental mechanisms involved in the diversification of flowers. Nature Plants, 5(9): 917-923.

　　　　Wang P#, Liao H#, Zhang W#, Yu X, Zhang R, Shan H, Duan X, Yao X, Kong H*. 2015. Flexibility in the structure of spiral flowers and its underlying mechanisms. Nature Plants, 2(1): 15188.