Protected Vegetables Growth and Development Research

This team, led by Prof Bie Zhilong, consists of 5 members, including Dr. Huang Yuan, Kong Qiusheng, Cheng Fei, Cheng Jintao and Yang Li. This team was elected as an Innovation Group supported by Huazhong Agricultural University in 2018. Cucumber, watermelon, and melon are the main research crops; now this team has 3 stable research directions, namely, the grafting biology of protected vegetable crops, physiological and molecular biology of stress resistance, and molecular bases of the formation and regulation of fruit quality.

This team revealed the mechanism of root respiratory burst oxidase homologue (RBOH) -dependent H₂O₂ production serves as an early signal to regulate salt tolerance of grafted cucumber, and found the salt tissue tolerance mechanism in Cucurbita maxima which is dependent on an early ABA-induced stomatal closure, Na⁺ sequestration in leaf vein and K⁺ retention in mesophyll. The function of melon tonoplast sugar transporter CmTST2 was first identified in the world. This team established the technique systems of grafted watermelon and melon seedlings healthy production, and honey bee pollination for watermelon and melon under protected conditions. Three provincial science and technology awards were obtained by this team; more than 50 papers were published in SCI journals, including Journal of Experimental Botany.