Title: Wheat disease resistance: Genomics, Genetics, and Breeding

Speaker: Zhiyong Liu

Time: 4：30 pm, December 16, 2021

Venue: N8T07

Introduction of Speaker:

ZhiyongLiu is the Principal Investigator of Wheat Genomic, Genetic and Breeding group of the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He also serves as Professor of the College of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, University of Chinese Academy Sciences. Prof. Liu got his Bachelor degree from Hebei Agricultural University at Changli in 1984.After serving as Teaching Assistant and Lecturer for nine years, he went to Beijing Agricultural University (China Agricultural University) for postgraduate study (1993-1999) and was awarded Master and Ph D degree in 1996 and 1999, respectively. From 1999to 2004, Dr. Liudid postdoctoral research at the Institute of Plant Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland and Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, USA. He discovered the primitive sex chromosome in Carica papaya in the first time and published a paper in Nature. He then backed to China Agricultural University as a full professor and was awarded the Distinguish Young Scholar by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His laboratory worked on wheat genetic and breeding focusing on disease resistance. Prof. Liu’s lab moved to the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016 working on wheat genomics, genetics and breeding researches focused on identification, mapping and map-based cloning of important genes for disease resistance (powdery mildew, stripe rust, leaf rust, spot blotch, etc.) and agronomic traits (yield, plant architecture, etc.). His lab identified many new genes conferring resistance to powdery mildew, stripe rust, and spot blotch in wheat, and cloned the powdery mildew resistance genes Pm5e, Pm24 and Pm41, leaf rust resistance and hybrid necrosis gene Lr13/Ne2. Those genes were used to develop breeder friendly germplasms and wide adapted high-yielding newcultivars for the main wheat growing area. In the past years, Prof. Liu’s group has developed several new wheat cultivars, such as “Nongda 399”, “Nongda 1108”, “Nongda 2011”, “Nongda 2018” and “Kemai 1609” etc. andpublished more than 90 papers in Nature Communications, Molecular Plant, New Phytologist, Plant Biotechnology Journal, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, The Crop Journal, Molecular Breeding, etc.