Cheng Yunjiang

Prof. Yunjiang Cheng, Dean of college of Horticultural and Forestry Sciences in Huazhong Agricultural University. He focuses on the postharvest biology and technology of horticultural products and is committed to the dissection of the complex biology of fruit postharvest quality maintenance and the regulation mechanisms. His group has systematically analyzed the biological basis underlying the differences between loose-skin and tight-skin citrus in the storage performance. By constructing the molecular regulatory network for citrus postharvest quality deterioration, his group found that water deficit stress is the dominant factor that activates and accelerates the deterioration of fruit quality; fruit aquaporin protein affected by organic acid and surface wax regulated by ABA play important roles in the process of water transport and loss in postharvest fruits. Based on these findings, green and practical preservation technologies aimed at controlling water loss, a safer candidate substitute of 2,4-D and a new series of fruit wax have been developed. To reduce the fruit loss and improve the citrus postharvest process, he has optimized the traditional process and integrated the pre-sorting, online heat treatment, rapid detection, and recycling use of fungicides techniques to the process. Moreover, he has also proposed the schemes for the construction and management of energy-saving storage of citrus fruits. Based on the above research, he has published over 100 papers on the classical high-impact journal such as Plant Cell, New Phytologist, Plant Physiology, Journal of Experimental Botany, Food Chemistry and Postharvest Biology and Technology. Owing to the great effect to improve the citrus postharvest industry, he has received three Provincial first-class prizes and wrote two Chinese agricultural industry standards.

[1] 1998.9-2004.1 Huazhong Agricultural University > PhD Horticulture
[2] 1994.9-1998.6 Northwest A&F University > BS Agriculture

1) Zhu F, Alseekh S, Koper K, Tong H, Nikoloski Z, Naake T, Liu H, Yan J, Brotman Y, Wen W, Maeda H, Cheng Y*, Fernie AR* (2022) Genome-wide association of the metabolic shifts underpinning dark-induced senescence in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 34: 557-578
2) Zhu F, Luo T, Liu C, Wang Y, Yang H, Yang W, Zheng L, Xiao X, Zhang M, Xu R, Xu J, Zeng Y, Xu J, Xu Q, Guo W, Larkin RM, Deng X, Cheng Y* (2017) An R2R3-MYB transcription factor represses the transformation of alpha- and beta-branch carotenoids by negatively regulating expression of CrBCH2 and CrNCED5 in flavedo of Citrus reticulate. New Phytol 216: 178-192
3) Ding, Y., Chang, J., Ma, Q., Chen, L., Liu, S., Jin, S., Han, J., Xu, R., Zhu, A., Guo, J., Luo, Y., Xu, J., Xu, Q., Zeng, Y., Deng, X., and Cheng, Y. (2015). Network Analysis of Postharvest Senescence Process in Citrus Fruits Revealed by Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Profiling. Plant Physiol 168, 357-376.
4) Zhang M, Wang J, Liu R, Liu H, Yang H, Zhu Z, Xu R, Wang P, Deng X, Xue S, Zhu F, Cheng Y (2022) CsMYB96 confers resistance to water loss in citrus fruit by simultaneous regulation of water transport and wax biosynthesis. J Exp Bot 73: 953-966
5) Wang Y, Yang X, Chen Z, Zhang J, Si K, Xu R, He Y, Zhu F, Cheng Y (2022) Function and transcriptional regulation of CsKCS20 in the elongation of very-long-chain fatty acids and wax biosynthesis in Citrus sinensis flavedo. Hortic Res 9:uhab027.
6) Yang H, Zou Y, Li X, Zhang M, Zhu Z, Xu R, Xu J, Deng X, Cheng Y (2022) QTL analysis reveals the effect of CER1-1 and CER1-3 to reduce fruit water loss by increasing cuticular wax alkanes in citrus fruit. Postharvest Biol Tec 185: 111771
7) Yang H, Zhu Z, Zhang M, Li X, Xu R, Zhu F, Xu J, Deng X, Cheng Y (2022) CitWRKY28 and CitNAC029 promote the synthesis of cuticular wax by activating CitKCS gene expression in citrus fruit. Plant Cell Rep https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02826-x.
8) Yang H, Mei W, Wan H, Xu R, Cheng Y (2021) Comprehensive analysis of KCS gene family in Citrinae reveals the involvement of CsKCS2 and CsKCS11 in fruit cuticular wax synthesis at ripening. Plant Sci 310: 110972
9) Zhu Z, Liu P, Xu R, Chen C, Deng C, Niu Y, Zhu Y, Wang P, Deng X, Cheng Y (2021) Influence of plastic film covering of tree canopy on fruit postharvest storage performance in shatangju tangerine. Sci Agric Sin 54:2630-2643.
10) Wan H, Liu H, Zhang J, Lyu Y, Li Z, He Y, Zhang X, Deng X, Brotman Y, Fernie AR, Cheng Y*, and Wen W*(2020). Lipidomic and transcriptomic analysis reveals reallocation of carbon flux from cuticular wax into plastid membrane lipids in a glossy “Newhall” navel orange mutant. Hortic Res 7, 41.
11) He Y, Li Z, Tan F, Liu H, Zhu M, Yang H, Bi G, Wan H, Wang J, Xu R, Wen W, Zeng Y, Xu J, Guo W, Xue S, Cheng Y, Deng X (2019) Fatty acid metabolic flux and lipid peroxidation homeostasis maintain the biomembrane stability to improve citrus fruit storage performance. Food Chem 292: 314-324
12) He Y, Han J, Liu R, Ding Y, Wang J, Sun L, Yang X, Zeng Y, Wen W, Xu J, Zhang H, Yan X, Chen Z, Gu Z, Chen H, Tang H, Deng X, Cheng Y (2018) Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of a wax deficient citrus mutant exhibiting jasmonic acid-mediated defense against fungal pathogens. Hortic Res 5: 43