Image of Dr Baoxiu Qi

Dr Baoxiu Qi

Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences

Faculty of Science

Email: B.Qi@ljmu.ac.uk

Telephone: 0151 904 6142

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ORCID

I am a plant molecular biologist/biotechnologist with a particular interest in lipid signalling and biotechnology. Using Arabidopsis as a model system I investigate protein palmitoylation, also known as S-acylation, a post-translational lipid modification that is responsible for membrane targeting of proteins involved in plant growth and stress responses. In addition I am interested in the genetic modification of higher plants to produce omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (EPA and DHA), components of fish oils that are known to have major health benefits, such as brain and eye development in infants and heart disease prevention.
1. Basic research carried out in the model plant Arabidopsis
The central focus of my research is investigating the function of signalling pathways linked to protein S-acylation in the regulation of growth, development and stress responses in plant. Through the systematic characterisation of the 24 Arabidopsis thaliana Palmitoyl S-Acyl Transferases (AtPATs – enzymes that carry out this lipid modification) we have found that protein S-acylation is involved in all aspects of plant growth and development from seed germination/seedling establishment to seed production in mature plants. Significantly, S-acylation also plays important roles in abiotic and biotic stress responses and is therefore central to plant adaptation and survival. For example, we demonstrated AtPAT10 to be involved in cell division, cell expansion, fertility and salt stress (Qi et al, 2013, New Phytologist) and went on to show that AtPAT14 regulates leaf senescence via the salicylic acid (SA) pathway (Li et al, 2016, Plant Physiology). Currently, we are working on 2 further AtPATs and have discovered that one is the key regulator in lipid catabolism during early seedling growth (Li et al, 2019a) with the other mediating male and female fertility via its regulatory roles in meiosis (Li et al, 2019b).

2. Applied research in generation of dwarf pear rootstocks
In agriculture dwarfism is used to increase crop productivity and aid in crop management. For example, the breeding of dwarf rice and wheat were major successes for the so-called ‘green revolution’ during the 1960s providing major increases in yield hence saving millions of lives. These varieties are still widely cultivated today. Dwarfing is routinely used in the cultivation in fruit trees (such as apple and pear) and is achieved by grafting scions onto dwarf rootstocks. While this is very successful in apples it is not so in pear trees. In order to address this problem we have utilised the CRISPR-cas9 technology to edit relevant genes regulating plant height and successfully generated dwarfed pear plantlets (Xu et al., unpublished; Pang et al., unpublished).
3. Genetic engineering of crop plants to produce fish oils
I pioneered the work that transferred 3 genes originating from a microalga and a fungus for the biosynthesis of EPA in Arabidopsis. This proved for the first time that it was feasible to produce fish oils in higher plants (Qi et al, 2004, Nature Biotechnology). Following from this I established a research lab in Shandong Agricultural University and took forward research to engineer this valuable beneficial trait into agriculturally relevant oilseed crops such as cotton, maize and peanut. My ultimate aim is to optimize multiple gene transfer strategies to produce large quantities of fish oils in these crops in order to provide a sustainable alternative source for these healthy oils (see Sun et al., 2012; Sun et al., 2013; Yuan et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2015; Xia et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2018).

Languages

English
Chinese (Mandarin)

Degrees

University of Bath, United Kingdom, PhD

Certifications

UK Higher Education of Academy, FHEA

Academic appointments

Senior Lecturer, School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, 2019 - present
Research Associate/Research Fellow/Lecturer, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, 2004 - 2018
Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 2000 - 2004

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