Dr Gang-Ping Xue: studying drought adaptation genes

Dr Gang-Ping Xue is investigating genes involved in drought adaptation in wheat.

• 13 September 2006 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications

Current activities

Dr Xue and his team are working to understand how wheat plants respond and adapt to drought stress, and which genes underlie genotypic differences in drought adaptation traits.

Dr Xue is interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which wheat plants respond to progressive soil water deficit. He is working to determine how this information is translated into our understanding on growth and grain yield differences between wheat genotypes in water-limited environments.

Within this framework, his major research focus has been to identify genes that are involved in wheat plant adaptation to drought stress, with an emphasis on transcription factors and their gene regulatory networks and key genes that influence genotypic difference in drought adaptation. 

To address this research goal, Dr Xue has conducted:

• genome-wide expression profiling of wheat genes under drought-stress conditions
• comparative expression analyses of genes among wheat genotypes
• functional analysis of drought-responsive transcription factors, including over-expressing in transgenic wheat.   

Background

Dr Xue started work with CSIRO in 1991 and joined CSIRO Plant Industry in 2000, working on improving the feed quality of barley using plant biotechnological approach and gene regulation in barley and wheat under abiotic stresses (drought and cold). 

Academic qualifications

Dr Xue has been awarded

• a Bachelor in Agricultural Sciences at Zhejiang University China in 1977
• his Doctorate on Biochemistry at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, in 1986.

See a list of scientific papers published by Dr Xue on the next page.