The Drupe team of Nanjing Agricultural University was established in 1998. Currently, there are four team members, including one professor (Zhihong Gao), one associate professors (Ting Shi), one lab manager (Zhaojun Ni) and one postdoctoral fellow (Faisal Hayat Maken). In recent five years, the team has undertaken the National Key R&D Program of China, several NSFC and Jiangsu provincial science foundation projects, and established the National germplasm field of Prunus mume and was berry, published more than 100 SCI papers and owned/applied ten national invention patents.

Research interests

The main research direction is collection and evaluation of fruit tree germplasm resources, gene cloning and function analysis, fruit tree tissue culture and genetic transformation, research and application of fruit tree molecular markers, fruit tree detoxification and virus disease monitoring.

(1)   Flower development

Reproduction is a critical stage in the flower development process, and its failure causes serious problems affecting fruit quality and yield. Pistil abortion is one of the main factors in unsuccessful reproduction and occurs in many fruit plants. In Japanese apricot, the problem of pistil abortion is very common and affects fruit quality and plant yield; however, its molecular mechanism is not clearly understood. Therefore, in the current study, we used RNA-Seq to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and pathways actively involved in pistil abortion. A total of 60 transcription factor families such as MADS-box, NAC and TCP showed their role in this process. RT-qPCR assays confirmed that the expression levels were consistent with RNA-Seq results. This study provides an alternative to be considered for further studies and understanding of pistil abortion processes in Japanese apricot, and it provides a reference related to this issue for other deciduous fruit crops.

(2)   Flowering

Japanese apricot blooms earlier than other deciduous fruit trees, but different regions have different blooming periods. The time of anthesis is related to the dormancy period, and a certain amount of chilling promotes bud break and blooming. To identify the relationship between blooming time and the climatic adaptation of Japanese apricot cultivars in China, the nuclear and chloroplast genomes of 19 cultivars from the main cultivation areas of Japanese apricot in China were resequenced. Associated with the blooming time groups, 21 selective sweep regions were identified, which could provide evidence supporting the possible model of Japanese apricot domestication originating due to natural selection. Furthermore, we identified a flowering gene, FRIGIDA-LIKE 3 (FRL3), seems to affect the blooming time and the climatic adaptation of Japanese apricot cultivars. This study is a major step toward understanding the climatic adaptation of Japanese apricot cultivars in China.

Selected Publications

[1]     Luo XY, Shi T, Sun HL, Song J, Ni ZJ, Gao ZH (2014) Selection of suitable inner reference genes for normalisation of microRNA expression response to abiotic stresses by RT-qPCR in leaves, flowers and young stems of peach. Scientia Horticulturae 165: 281-287

[2]     Sun H, Song J, Gao ZH, Ni Z, Zhang Z (2014) Isolation and expression analysis of PmKNAT2 gene from Japanese apricot. Scientia Agricultura Sinica 47: 3444-3452

[3]     Gu X, Chen Y, Gao Z, Qiao Y, Wang X (2015) Transcription factors and anthocyanin genes related to low-temperature tolerance in rd29A:RdreB1BI transgenic strawberry. Plant Physiol Biochem 89: 31-43

[4]     Song J, Gao ZH, Huo XM, Sun HL, Xu YS, Shi T, Ni ZJ (2015) Genome-wide identification of the auxin response factor (ARF) gene family and expression analysis of its role associated with pistil development in Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc). Acta Physiol Plant 37: 145

[5]     Zhou Y, Wu X, Zhang Z, Gao Z (2015) Comparative proteomic analysis of floral color variegation in peach. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 464: 1101-1106

[6]     Zhuang W, Gao Z, Wen L, Huo X, Cai B, Zhang Z (2015) Metabolic changes upon flower bud break in Japanese apricot are enhanced by exogenous GA4. Hortic Res 2: 15046

[7]     Sun HL, Shi T, Song J, Xu YS, Gao ZH, Song XX, Ni ZJ, Cai BH (2016) Pistil abortion in Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.): isolation and functional analysis of PmCCoAOMT gene. Acta Physiol Plant 38: 114

[8]     Wen LH, Zhong WJ, Huo XM, Zhuang WB, Ni ZJ, Gao ZH (2016) Expression analysis of ABA- and GA-related genes during four stages of bud dormancy in Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc). J Hortic Sci Biotechnol 91: 362-369

[9]     Zhuang WB, Cai BH, Gao ZH, Zhang Z (2016) Determination of chilling and heat requirements of 69 Japanese apricot cultivars. Eur J Agron 74: 68-74

[10] Gu X, Gao Z, Yan Y, Wang X, Qiao Y, Chen Y (2017) RdreB1BI enhances drought tolerance by activating AQP-related genes in transgenic strawberry. Plant Physiol Biochem 119: 33-42

[11] Huang Z, Shi T, Zheng B, Yumul RE, Liu X, You C, Gao Z, Xiao L, Chen X (2017) APETALA2 antagonizes the transcriptional activity of AGAMOUS in regulating floral stem cells in Arabidopsis thaliana. New Phytol 215: 1197-1209

[12] Wu X, Gong Q, Ni X, Zhou Y, Gao Z (2017) UFGT: The key enzyme associated with the petals variegation in Japanese apricot. Front Plant Sci 8: 108

[13] Xue H, Shi T, Wang F, Zhou H, Yang J, Wang L, Wang S, Su Y, Zhang Z, Qiao Y, Li X (2017) Interval mapping for red/green skin color in Asian pears using a modified QTL-seq method. Hortic Res 4: 17053

[14] Zhang Y, Shi T, Xinxin WU, Gao Z, University NA (2017) Establishment and optimization of Western-blot system for CCoAOMT protein in Prunus mume (In Chinese). Journal of Nanjing Agricultural University 40: 977-982

[15] Guo S, Iqbal S, Ma R, Song J, Yu M, Gao Z (2018) High-density genetic map construction and quantitative trait loci analysis of the stony hard phenotype in peach based on restriction-site associated DNA sequencing. BMC Genomics 19: 612

[16] Liao RY, Wu XX, Zeng ZF, Yin LX, Gao ZH (2018) Transcriptomes of fruit cavity revealed by de novo sequence analysis in Nai plum (Prunus salicina). J Plant Growth Regul 37: 730-744

[17] Lou X, Wang H, Ni X, Gao Z, Iqbal S (2018) Integrating proteomic and transcriptomic analyses of loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.) in response to cold stress. Gene 677: 57-65

[18] Lv L, Huo X, Wen L, Gao Z, Khalil-Ur-Rehman M (2018) Isolation and role of PmRGL2 in GA-mediated floral bud dormancy release in Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Siebold et Zucc.). Front Plant Sci 9: 27

[19] Ni X, Xue S, Iqbal S, Wang W, Ni Z, Khalil-Ur-Rehman M, Gao Z (2018) Candidate genes associated with red colour formation revealed by comparative genomic variant analysis of red- and green-skinned fruits of Japanese apricot (Prunus mume). PeerJ 6: e4625

[20] Shi T, Sun J, Wu X, Weng J, Wang P, Qie H, Huang Y, Wang H, Gao Z (2018) Transcriptome analysis of Chinese bayberry (Myrica rubra Sieb. et Zucc.) fruit treated with heat and 1-MCP. Plant Physiol Biochem 133: 40-49

[21] Wang W, Shi T, Ni X, Xu Y, Qu S, Gao Z (2018) The role of miR319a and its target gene TCP4 in the regulation of pistil development in Prunus mume. Genome 61: 43-48

[22] Xue HB, Zhang PJ, Shi T, Yang J, Wang L, Wang SK, Su YL, Zhang HR, Qiao YS, Li XG (2018) Genome-wide characterization of simple sequence repeats in Pyrus bretschneideri and their application in an analysis of genetic diversity in pear. BMC Genomics 19: 473

[23] Gao Z (2019) The Prunus mume Genome. Springer, Cham

[24] Wu X, Shi T, Iqbal S, Zhang Y, Liu L, Gao Z (2019) Genome-wide discovery and characterization of flower development related long non-coding RNAs in Prunus mume. BMC Plant Biol 19: 64

[25] Xue S, Shi T, Luo WJ, Ni XP, Iqbal S, Ni ZJ, Huang X, Yao D, Shen ZJ, Gao ZH (2019) Comparative analysis of the complete chloroplast genome among Prunus mume, P. armeniaca, and P. salicina. Hortic Res 6: 89

[26] Iqbal S, Ni X, Bilal MS, Shi T, Khalil-ur-Rehman M, Zhenpeng P, Jie G, Usman M, Gao Z (2020) Identification and expression profiling of sugar transporter genes during sugar accumulation at different stages of fruit development in apricot. Gene: 144584

[27] Shi T, Iqbal S, Ayaz A, Bai Y, Pan Z, Ni X, Hayat F, Saqib Bilal M, Khuram Razzaq M, Gao Z (2020) Analyzing differentially expressed genes and pathways associated with pistil abortion in Japanese apricot via RNA-seq. Genes (Basel) 11: 1079

[28] Shi T, Luo W, Li H, Huang X, Ni Z, Gao H, Iqbal S, Gao Z (2020) Association between blooming time and climatic adaptation in Prunus mume. Ecol Evol 10: 292-306

[29] Huang X, Tan W, Li F, Liao R, Guo Z, Shi T, Gao Z (2021) The chloroplast genome of Prunus zhengheensis: Genome comparative and phylogenetic relationships analysis. Gene 793: 145751

[30] Li H, Gao J, Shi T, Iqbal S, Ni Z, Gao Z (2021) Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the frigida domain gene family in Prunus mume (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.). Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology