Academic Background
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Palanivelu Lab, University of Arizona, 2016
Ph.D. Plant Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, 2012
B.S. Applied Biosciences, Zhejiang University, 2006
Research Interests and Current Efforts
Xunliang Liu, a Research Associate in the lab, studies aspects of molecular signaling in plant-nematode interactions. His research is focused on understanding how sugar beet cyst nematode (BCN) utilizes host developmental programs for its parasitic success. In particular, he has profiled transcriptomes of BCN-induced syncytia from wild-type and clv1-101 clv2-101 rpk2-5, a mutant impaired in CLE signaling with enhanced resistance to BCN, by coupling laser capture microdissection (LCM) with RNA-seq. By comparing WT and mutant derived syncytia transcriptomes, he is trying to find components downstream of plant CLE signaling pathways that are involved in cyst nematode parasitism.
Publications
Mitchum MG and Liu X. Peptide effectors in phytonematode parasitism and beyond. Annual Review of Phytopathology 2022, 60:97-119. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-phyto-021621-115932
Wang J, Dhroso A, Liu X, Baum TJ, Hussey RS, Davis EL, Wang X, Korkin D, Mitchum MG. Phytonematode peptide effectors exploit a host post-translational trafficking mechanism to the ER secretory pathway using a novel translocation signal. New Phytologist 2021; 229(1): 563-574. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16765 **See also the Commentary on this article by Frei dit Frey & Favery 229: 11–13.
Jones DS, Liu X, Willoughby AC, Smith BE, Palanivelu R, and Kessler SA. Cellular Distribution of Secretory Pathway Markers in the Haploid Synergid Cells of Arabidopsis thaliana. The Plant Journal 2018; 94, 192-202. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.13848
Wang Y, Tsukamoto T, Noble JA, Liu X, Mosher R, and Palanivelu R. Arabidopsis LORELEI, a Maternally-Expressed Imprinted Gene, Promotes Early Seed Development. Plant Physiology 2017; 175 (2) 758-773. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.17.00427
Liu X, Castro C, Wang Y, Noble JA, Ponvert N, Bundy M, Hoel C, Shpak E, and Palanivelu R. LORELEI Function in Pollen Tube Reception at the Interface of the Synergid Cell and the Pollen Tube Requires the Modified Eight-Cysteine Motif and FERONIA Receptor-Like Kinase. The Plant Cell 2016; 28 (5): 1035-1052. (Cover Image) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.15.00703
Liu X*, Yu HD*, Guan Y, Li JK, and Guo FQ. Carbonylation and Loss-of-Function Analyses of SBPase Reveal its Metabolic Interface Role in Oxidative Stress, Carbon Assimilation, and Multiple Aspects of Growth and Development in Arabidopsis. Molecular Plant 2012; 5(5):1082-1099. (*equal contribution) https://doi.org/10.1093/mp/sss012
Yu HD, Yang XF, Chen ST, Wang YT, Li JK, Shen Q, Liu X, and Guo FQ 2012. Downregulation of Chloroplast RPS1 Negatively Modulates Nuclear Heat-Responsive Expression of HsfA2 and Its Target Genes in Arabidopsis. Plos Genetics 2012; 8(5): e1002669. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002669