Sunny Sun

• PhD
• Researcher at Institute of Agricultural biotechnology

Background Foxtail millet [Setaria italica (L.) Beauv] is a C4 graminoid crop cultivated mainly in the arid and semiarid regions of China for more than 7000 years. Its grain highly nutritious and is rich in starch, protein, essential vitamins such as carotenoids, folate, and minerals. To expand the utilisation of foxtail millet, efficient and preci...

The rigid hull encasing Tartary buckwheat seeds necessitates a laborious dehulling process before flour milling, resulting in considerable nutrient loss. Investigation of lignin composition is pivotal in understanding the structural properties of tartary buckwheat seeds hulls, as lignin is key determinant of rigidity in plant cell walls, thus direc...

Common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) is an ancient crop with a world wide distribution. Due to its excellent nutritional quality and high economic and ecological value, common buckwheat is becoming increasingly important throughout the world. The availability of a high-quality reference genome sequence and population genomic data will acc...

Enhancing the absorption and utilization of phosphorus by crops is an important aim for ensuring food security worldwide. However, the gene regulatory network underlying phosphorus use in foxtail millet remains unclear. In this study, the molecular mechanism underlying low-phosphorus (LP) responsiveness in foxtail millet was evaluated using a compa...

The excessive content of heavy metals and the deficiency of beneficial trace elements in cereals have threatened global food security and human health. As important metal transporters, Natural resistance-associated macrophage proteins (Nramps) are involved in the absorption and transport of various metal ions in plants, including beneficial element...

Foxtail millet has attracted substantial attention in recent years because of its excellent properties as a cereal crop with high nutritional value. Although the cultivation area of foxtail millet keeps growing, the fundamental research into the nutritional and eating qualities of foxtail millet germplasm collections is limited. In this study, we p...

The effect of exogenous salicylic acid (SA) on folate metabolism and the related gene regulatory mechanisms is still unclear. In this study, the panicle of foxtail millet treated with different SA concentrations showed that 6 mM SA doubled the 5-methyltetrahydrofolate content compared to that of the control. An untargeted metabolomic analysis revea...

The folate content of foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is higher than that of other major crops. Polyglutamylation of folate can enhance its compartmentalization, reduce its transport, increase its affinities with enzymes, and increase the stability of the folate pool in Arabidopsis. The polyglutamylation reaction is catalyzed by folylpolyglutamate...

Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum L. Gaertn., TB) is an ancient minor crop and an important food source for humans to supplement nutrients such as flavonoids and essential amino acids. Amino acid transporters (AATs) play critical roles in plant growth and development through the transport of amino acids. In this study, 104 AATs were identified...

Folates content in foxtail millet ( Setaria italica ) are higher than that in major crops. Polyglutamylation of folates could enhance their compartmentalization, reducing their transport, increase their affinities with enzymes and increase the stability of the folates pool in Arabidopsis . The polyglutamylation reaction are catalyzed by folylpolygl...

To ward off pathogens, plants establish innate immunity system in which salicylic acid (SA) plays an important role. The downy mildew of foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is an oomycete disease caused by biotrophic pathogen Sclerospora graminicola, which seriously affects the yield and quality of foxtail millet. However, it is not clear how SA regul...

The mechanism underlying folate degradation in foxtail millet grains remains unclear. Here, we identified SiFBP (Setaria italica folate-binding protein) from foxtail millet. A phylogenetic tree revealed that FBPs have close genetic relationships among cereal crop species. Docking analysis and heterologous expression of SiFBP in yeast showed that it...

To ward off pathogens, plants establish innate immunity system in which salicylic acid (SA) plays an important role. The downy mildew of foxtail millet ( Setaria italica ) is an oomycete disease caused by biotrophic pathogen Sclerospora graminicola , which seriously affects the yield and quality of foxtail millet. However, it is not clear how SA re...

Tartary buckwheat (TB; Fagopyrum tataricum Gaertn.) is an important multigrain crop and medicinal plant, but functional genomics and molecular breeding research in this species have been lacking for quite some time. Here, genome-wide screening was performed to develop simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers associated with six major agronomic traits a...

Background The grains of foxtail millet are enriched in carotenoids, which endow this plant with a yellow color and extremely high nutritional value. However, the underlying molecular regulation mechanism and gene coexpression network remain unclear. Methods The carotenoid species and content were detected by HPLC for two foxtail millet varieties...

[Background]The grains of foxtail millet are enriched in carotenoids, which endow this plant with a yellow color and extremely high nutritional value. However, the underlying molecular regulation mechanism and gene coexpression network remain unclear. [Methods] The carotenoid species and content were detected by HPLC for two foxtail millet varietie...

BACKGROUND Foxtail millet grain has higher folate content than other cereal crops. However, the folate metabolite content and the expression patterns of folate metabolite‐related genes are unknown. RESULTS Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry was used to investigate 12 folate metabolites in a foxtail millet panicle. The content of total folate...

Background Tartary buckwheat is an important minor crop species with high nutritional and medicinal value and is widely planted worldwide. Cultivated Tartary buckwheat plants are tall and have hollow stems that lodge easily, which severely affects their yield and hinders the development of the Tartary buckwheat industry. Methods Heifeng No. 1 seed...

The R2R3-MYB transcription factors play an important role in regulating secondary metabolism biosynthesis and abiotic stress in plants. In this article, we report the identification of the transcription factor gene, FtMYB31, from the popular Eurasian crop tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) that enhances accumulation of the nutritionally benefi...

There are abundant germplasm resources for Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.), particularly in northern China. This study intended to assess the relationships and genetic structure of 48 cultivars of jujube derived from seven geographical regions in northern China using inter‐simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Eight ISSR primers were select...

The zinc finger protein (ZFP) transcription factor family plays an important role in regulating plant growth, development, and response to abiotic stress. In this study, we aimed to determine the role of GmZAT4, a C2H2-type transcription factor, in abiotic stress tolerance. The complete coding sequence of the GmZAT4 gene was isolated from soybean r...

Foxtail millet [Setaria italica (L.) Beauv], an important minor crop in semi-arid regions of Northern China, is valued for its flavor, color and nutrition. In order to understand the relationship between carotenoid accumulation and expression of related genes in foxtail millet, two contrasting varieties were studied. 'Jingu21', which produces yello...

Premise of the study Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum; Poaceae) is a minor crop with good nutritional qualities and strong tolerance to drought stress and soil infertility. However, studies on genetic diversity have been limited due to a lack of efficient genetic markers. Methods Illumina sequencing technology was used to generate short read sequen...

Tartary buckwheat is an important edible crop as well as medicinal plant in China. More and more research is being focused on this minor grain crop because of its medicinal functions, but there is a paucity of molecular markers for tartary buckwheat due to the lack of genomics. In this study, a genome survey was carried out in tartary buckwheat, fr...

We developed an in vitro regeneration system using the buckwheat species, Fagopyrum esculentum (Wenshatianqiao, WS) and Fagopyrum tataricum (Jiujiangkuqiao, JJ) in order to test the relationship between biosynthesis and accumulation of rutin and expression of genes encoding rutin biosynthetic enzymes. Hypocotyl explants were incubated on MS solid m...

Except for buckwheat, no cereal or pseudocereal contains any detectable rutin. This study was carried out to compare the rutin content in leaves treated with various concentrations of salicylic acid (SA) (50 mg l−1, 100 mg l−1, 150 mg l−1) for various lengths of time (2–120 h) to those of untreated F. tartaricum. Rutin content in leaves during the...