Guangyuan Rao, Ph.D.
Group of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany
Professor, College of Life Sciences, Peking University
tel：
E-mail：rao@pku.edu.cn
1. Plant Taxonomy or Plant Systematics
2. Plant Speciation
3. Generation and Evolution of Key Innovative Traits in Plants
Plant taxonomy/plant systematics is one of the oldest branches of botany and one of the "endangered" sub-disciplines, but it is fundamental to the utilization and conservation of natural resources and biopersity. Our laboratory is conducting or has done studies on some plant taxa with important economic and ecological value, such asChrysanthemum,SedumandRhodiolaby multidisciplinary approaches. Our study not only clarifies the boundary, phylogenetic relationship and evolutionary history of these taxa and their species, but also try to investigate new methods and applications of plant taxonomy in the era of omics and post-omics, hoping to help this ancient discipline to rejuvenate itself with new vitality.
Speciation is the source of biopersity, and it is an enduring research topic in evolutionary biology. In our laboratory, some species complexes with a "speciation continuum" such as theChrysanthemum zawadskiispecies complex,Rhodiola yunnanensisspecies complex, and some sister species pairs were selected, and the causes and mechanisms of speciation occurring in these taxa are studied. These results are not only helpful for elucidating the speciation modes and mechanisms of those species, but also help to understand the causes and mechanisms of the generation, maintenance and loss of plant species persity.
The generation and evolution of key innovative traits in the evolution of plants are the basis of plant adaptive evolution. Elucidating the process and mechanism of their generation is of great significance not only for explaining the evolutionary history of main plant lineages, but also for in-depth understanding of artificial domestication of economic plants, breeding of new varieties, and even invasion of alien species. Through the methods of molecular biology, developmental biology and evolutionary biology, our laboratory has conducted in-depth studies on the generation of 'seed traits' in vascular plants and the generation and evolution of the head inflorescence (capitulum) of Asteraceae, which provides scientific basis for understanding the causes and mechanisms of plant phenotypic evolution.
Lu WX, Wang ZZ, Hu XY, Rao GY. (2024) Incorporating eco-evolutionary information into species distribution models provides comprehensive predictions of species range shifts under climate change. Sci. Total Environ., 912: 169501.
Lu WX, Wang ZZ, Hu XY, Rao GY. (2023) Echoes of the past: niche evolution, range dynamics, and their coupling shape the distribution of species in the Chrysanthemum zawadskii species complex. Front. Ecol. Evol., 11: 1250491
Zhang CJ, Rong YL, Jiang CK, Guo YP, Rao GY. (2022) Co-option of a carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase gene (CCD4a) into the floral symmetry gene regulatory network contributes to the polymorphic floral shape–color combinations in Chrysanthemum sensu lato. New Phytol., 236: 1197-1211.
Lu WX, Hu XY, Wang ZZ, Rao GY. (2022) Hyb-Seq provides new insights into the phylogeny and evolution of the Chrysanthemum zawadskii species complex in China. Cladistics, 38: 663-683.
Bai SN, Rao GY, Yang J. (2022) Origins of the seed: The “golden-trio hypothesis”. Front. Plant Sci., 13:965000.
Wang ZM, Meng SY, Rao GY. (2022) Two species of the Rhodiola yunnanensis species complex distributed around the Sichuan Basin of China: Speciation in a ring? J Syst. Evol., 60: 1092-1108.
Shen CZ, Chen J, Zhang CJ, Rao GY, Guo YP. (2021) Dysfunction ofCYC2gis responsible for the evolutionary shift from radiate to disciform flowerheads in the Chrysanthemum group (Asteraceae: Anthemideae). Plant J., 106: 1024-1038.
Wan JN, Guo YP, Rao GY. (2021) Unraveling independent origins of two tetraploid Achillea species by amplicon sequencing. J Syst. Evol., 58: 913-924.
Jiang CK, Rao GY. (2020) Insights into the persification and evolution of R2R3-MYB transcription factors in plants. Plant Physiol., 183: 637-655.
Wang ZM, Meng SY, Rao GY. (2019) Quaternary climate change and habitat preference shaped the genetic differentiation and phylogeography of Rhodiola sect. Prainia in the southern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. Ecol. Evol.,9: 8305-8319.
Xueying Hu, Zhaoxiong Jiang, Peiyi Cao, Jinrui Kang
