Dr. Ray Ming of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign visited Wuhan Botanical Garden (WBG) on June 18. His visit was at the invitation of Associate Prof. LIU Yanling.

Dr. Ray Ming delivered a lecture entitled “Dynamic rearrangements and gene trafficking in nascent sex chromosomes of papaya”. His lecture focused on the genome sequencing and sex chromosome evolution in papaya. Sex determination in trioecious papaya (plants having male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers on different individuals) is controlled by a pair of incipient sex chromosomes. “We have now completed the 8.1 Mb hermaphrodite specific region of the Yh chromosome (HSY) and its 3.5 Mb X counterpart. Degeneration of the Yh chromosome is evident with the loss of 46% of the genes in its X chromosome counterpart,” said Dr. Ray Ming. The expansion of the HSY is caused by accumulation of retrotransposons. “We are now focusing on identification of sex determination genes and engineering a true breeding hermaphrodite variety without the Yh chromosome to improve papaya production,” he added.

Dr. Ray Ming is a Professor of plant biology. He is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Tropical Plant Biology and the associate editor of Genome Insights and Journal of Systematics and Evolution.

More information about Dr. Ray Ming available at http://www.life.illinois.edu/plantbio/People/Faculty/Ming.htm 

Dr. Ray Ming delivering lecture (Image by WBG)