Introduction

　　Qili Fei, Principle Investigator, Doctoral Advisor . He mainly focuses on plant small RNAs and RNA modifications, including N6-methyladenosine (m6A). He has published more than 10 papers in journals such as PLOS Biology, PNAS, Plant Cell, Plant Journal, Plant Biotechnology Journal, Journal of Experimental Botany.

　　Working Experience

　　2019.9–Present               Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen-CAAS            Professor                                                                         

　　2016.9–2019.8               The University of Chicago                                                     Postdoctoral Associate            

　　Education Experience

　　2012.1–2016.8               University of Delaware                                         Ph.D                   

　　2012.1–2015.12             University of Delaware                                         M.S.                   

　　2007.9–2011.6               Northwest A&F University                                   B.S.        

　　Research Interest

　　Eukaryotic transcriptomic modifications (epitranscriptome), especially N6-methyladenosine (m6A), play important roles in splicing, degradation, and translation. Our lab will study the roles of epitransciptomic modifications in plant development and biotic/abiotic stresses. We aim to dissect the roles of RNA modifications through different approaches, such as biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, as well as high through-put sequencing. At the same time, we will study the roles of small RNAs in plant gene expression regulation and evolution.

　　Major Achievements

　　Small RNAs and RNA modifications, such as m6A, play important roles in gene regulation at the post-transcriptional level in eukaryotes. Based on our previous studies on the mechanisms of phasiRNA biogenesis triggered by miRNAs (Plant Cell, 25(7): 2400; Plant Journal, 83(3): 451), we have demonstrated that the secondary structure of miR1510/miR1510* duplex may inhibit the terminal 2’-O-methylation activity of HEN1, thus leading to the production of 22-nt miR1510 by uridylation. Different from 2’-O-methylation, m6A is more broadly present on mRNAs. We recently revealed that the m6A reader protein YTHDF2 plays important roles in cell cycle regulation by promoting the mRNA turnover in human cells.

　　Selected Publication

　　1. Fei, Q.*, Zou, Z.*, Roundtree, I.A., Sun, H.L., and C. He. (2020) YTHDF2 promotes mitotic entry and is regulated by cell cycle mediators. PLOS Biology (accepted). (*co-first authors)

　　2. Bi, H.*, Fei, Q.*, Li, R., Liu, B., Xia, R., Char, S.N., Meyers, B.C., and B. Yang. (2019) Disruption of miRNA sequences by TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9 induces varied lengths of miRNA production. Plant Biotechnology Journal. doi: 10.1111/pbi.13315. (*co-first authors)

　　3. Fei, Q., Yu, Y., Liu, L., Zhang, Y., Baldrich, P., Dai, Q., Chen, X., and B.C. Meyers. (2018) Biogenesis of a 22-nt microRNA in Phaseoleae species by precursor-programmed uridylation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 115(31):8037-8042.

　　4. Fei, Q.*, Yang, L.*, Liang, W., Zhang, D., and B.C. Meyers. (2016) Dynamic changes of small RNAs in rice spikelet development reveal specialized reproductive phasiRNA pathways. Journal of Experimental Botany. 67(21):6037-6049. (*co-first authors)

　　5. Fei, Q., Zhang, Y., Xia, R., B.C. Meyers. (2016) Small RNAs add zing to the Zig-Zag-Zig model of plant defenses. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. 29(3): 165-169.

　　6. Fei, Q., Li, P., Teng, C., B.C. Meyers. (2015) Secondary siRNAs from Medicago NB-LRRs modulated via miRNA-target interactions and their abundances. The Plant Journal. 83(3): 451-65.

　　7. Fei, Q., Xia, R., and B.C. Meyers. (2013) Phased, secondary, small interfering RNAs in posttranscriptional regulatory networks. The Plant Cell. 25(7): 2400–2415.

　　8. Xu, H., Dzhashiashvili, Y., Shah, A., Kunjamma, R.B., Weng, Y.L., Elbaz, B., Fei, Q., Jones, J.S., Li, Y.I., Zhuang, X., Ming, G.L., He, C., and B. Popko. (2020) m6A mRNA Methylation Is Essential for Oligodendrocyte Maturation and CNS Myelination. Neuron. 105(2):293-309.e5.

　　9. Hsu, P.J., Fei, Q., Dai, Q., Shi, H., Dominissini, D., Ma, L., and C. He. (2019) Single base resolution mapping of 2’-O-methylation sites in human RNA and in 3’ terminal ends of small RNAs. Methods. pii: S1046-2023(18)30194-4.

　　10. Wei, J., Liu, F., Lu, Z., Fei, Q., Ai, Y., He, P.C., Shi, H., Cui, X., Su. R., Klungland, A., Jia, G., Chen, J., and C. He. (2018) Differential m6A, m6Am, and m1A demethylation mediated by FTO in the cell nucleus and cytoplasm. Molecular Cell. 71(6):973-985.

　　11. Liu, H., Soyars, C., Li, J., Fei, Q., He, G., Peterson, B., Meyers, B.C., Nimchuk, Z.L., and X. Wang. (2018) CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated resistance to cauliflower mosaic virus. Plant Direct. 2 (3), e00047.

　　12. Shu, X., Dai, Q., Wu, T., Bothwell, I.R., Yue, Y., Zhang, Z., Cao, J., Fei, Q., Luo, M., He, C., and J. Liu. (2017) N6-Allyladenosine: a new small molecule for RNA labeling identified by mutation assay. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 139(48):17213-17216.

　　13. Yang, L., Qian, X., Chen, M., Fei, Q., Meyers, B.C., Liang, W., and D. Zhang. (2016) Regulatory role of a receptor-like kinase in specifying anther cell identity in rice. Plant Physiology. 171(3):2085-100.