Qianqian Hu

• PhD Student at Fudan University

Phenotypic flexibility in adaptive traits is crucial for organisms to thrive in changing environments. Alternanthera philoxeroides, native to South America, has become an invasive weed in Asia. The mechanism by which invasive capacity is achieved remains unknown. Here, it is demonstrated that miR162 plays a crucial role in submergence survival for...

Female gametophyte development initiates from the megaspore mother cell (MMC), and only one somatic cell develops into an MMC. Here, we report that the balance between DNA methylation and demethylation ensures the maintenance of a single MMC in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Surprisingly, a decrease or an increase of all three DNA methylation...

In plants, sperm cell formation involves two rounds of pollen mitoses, in which the microspore initiates the first pollen mitosis (PMI) to produce a vegetative cell and a generative cell, then the generative cell continues the second mitosis (PMII) to produce two sperm cells. DUO1, a R2R3 Myb transcription factor, is activated in the generative cel...

Heterochromatin de-condensation in companion gametic cells is conserved in both plants and animals. In plants, microspore undergoes asymmetric pollen mitosis (PMI) to produce a vegetative cell (VC) and a generative cell (GC). Subsequently, the GC undergoes pollen mitosis (PMII) to produce two sperm cells (SC). Consistent with heterochromatin de-con...