Introduction

　　Peng Cui, Principle Investigator, Doctoral Advisor, “Outstanding Young Talent” of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS), top talent of Guangdong Tezhi Plan, overseas High-Caliber Personnel. He is mainly engaged in the field of plant genomics and bioinformatics. He has already published 25 papers at the international journals including Nature communicaitons, Plant cell, Genome biology, Molecular Plant, Plos genetics, etc., as the first or corresponding author. The publication has been cited more than 700 times. 

　　Working Experience

　　2016.05–Present    Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen-CAAS         Professor 

　　2012.04-2016.04   King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KSA  Research Scientist

　　2011.04-2012.03  Medical college of Wisconsin, USA   Postdoctoral Fellow

　　2010.02-2011.03   King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KSA  Research Scientist

　　2009.08-2010.01  Beijing Institute of Genomics, CAS  Researcher Fellow

　　Education

　　2004.9-2009.7    Beijing Institute of Genomics, CAS                         Ph.D                        

　　2000.9-2004.7    Shenyang University of Chemical Technology        Bachelor 

　　Research Interest

　　The research focuses on the development of new analysis and experimental methods in genomics, with an application on oil crop genomics research. On one hand, the research team is currently developing new techniques for genome analysis, focusing on new algorithms for genomic annotations, improving the accuracy of genome annotations, reducing human involvement, and automating processes. On the other hand, the team is studying on the genomes of some oil plants (including Tung tree, castor, sunflower), to explore new knowledge of oil plant genome and identify the key genes controlling important agronomic trait. The work provides a theoretical basis for molecular breeding of oil crops.

　　Major Achievements

　　The research team is committed to using genomics to promote molecular design and breeding of castor and other major industrial oil crops。Recent research progress is as follows: 1) in view of the lack of genetic background of castor in China, through the genome sequencing of 405 Chinese castor varieties, we completely revealed genetic variations at the whole genome level, and promoted the construction of castor molecular design and breeding technology system; 2)The work comprehensively revealed the regional distribution, phenotype and genotype differentiation of castor population in China, and revealed the molecular evolutionary mechanism of important agricultural traits of castor in the process of domestication and regional differentiation of varieties;3) Through genome-wide association analysis (GWAS), the genes and dominant genotypes controlling the important agricultural traits of castor (including seed size, seed length, hundred grain weight, plant height, ear height, ear length, peel thickness and the proportion of male and female flowers) were identified, which provides the potential targets for molecular breeding.

　　Selected Publication 

　　1.Wei Fan, Jianjun Lu, Pan Cheng, Meilian Tan, Qiang Lin, Wanfei Liu, Donghai Li, Lijun Wang, Lianlian Hu, Wang Lei, Chen Chen, Ai-Min Wu, Xinxin Yu, Ruan Jue, Jun Yu, Songnian Hu, Xingchu Yan*, Shiyou Lü*, Peng Cui*. Sequencing of Chinese Castor Lines Reveals Genetic Signatures of Selection and Yield-associated Loci. Nature Communications 2019 Jul 31;10(1):3418.

　　2. Cui P, Lin Q, Fang D, Zhang L, Li R, Cheng J, et al. Tung Tree (Vernicia fordii, Hemsl.) Genome and Transcriptome Sequencing Reveals Co-Ordinate Up-Regulation of Fatty Acid beta-Oxidation and Triacylglycerol Biosynthesis Pathways During Eleostearic Acid Accumulation in Seeds. Plant Cell Physiol. 2018;59(10):1990-2003.

　　3.Cui P*, Cheng Z*, et al. De novo genome assembly of Oryza granulata reveals rapid genome expansion and adaptive evolution. Communications Biology 2018;1.

　　4. Cui P, Chen T, Ding F, Ali S, Xiong L. The protein phosphatase FRY2 interacts with eIF4AIII and UPF3 and is essential for nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in Arabidopsis, The Plant Cell 2016, 28(3):770-85.

　　5. Cui P, Xiong L. Environmental Stress and Pre-mRNA Splicing. Molecular Plant 2015, p1302–1303.

　　6. Cui P, Zhang S, Ding F, Ali S, Xiong L: Dynamic regulation of genome-wide pre-mRNA splicing and stress tolerance by the Sm-like protein LSm5 in Arabidopsis. Genome Biology 2014, 15:R1.

　　7. Ding F, Cui P*, Wang Z, Zhang S, Ali S, Xiong L: Genome-wide analysis of alternative splicing of pre-mRNA under salt stress in Arabidopsis. BMC genomics 2014, 15:431.