Zhigang Liao
Title：Associate Professor
Address: Room 406, Institute of Water-saving and Drought-resistance Rice Green Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou
Email: zhgliao@scau.edu.cn
RESEARCH INTEREST
Utilizing multi-omics approaches to:
• Identify key drought-resistant genes in rice and elucidate their molecular functions;
• Decipher regulatory networks among drought-responsive genes;
• Investigate synergistic mechanisms between drought tolerance and other yield-related traits;
• Provide theoretical foundations for breeding, application, and promotion of water-saving and drought-resistant rice (WDR).
EDUCATION
2005.09-2009.06 Bachelor, Huazhong Agricultural University
2009.09-2017.01 Doctor, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
2018.09-2022.11 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
2022.12-2024.03 Assistant Research Fellow, Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center
2024.03-Present Associate Professor, South China Agricultural University
PUBLICATIONS
[1] Yu Q#, Zhang Y#, Liu T, Wang L, Liu Y, Yu S, Yu X, Xia H*, Liao Z*, Luo L* (2025)
Genome-wide characterization of cysteine-rich receptor-like kinase (CRK) gene family in rice and OsCRK26 functional analysis in response to drought stress, Plant Stress 15 100733.
[2] Liao Z#, Zhang Y#, Yu Q, Fang W, Chen M, Li T, Liu Y, Liu Z, Chen L, Yu S, Xia H, Xue H-W*, Yu H*, Luo L* (2023) Coordination of growth and drought responses by GA-ABA signaling in rice, New Phytol. 240: 1149- 1161.
[3] Yang Y, Ma X, Xia H, Wang L, Chen S, Xu K, Yang F, Zou Y, Wang Y, Zhu J, Li T, Luo Z, Hu S, Liao Z, Luo L*, Yu S* (2022) Natural variation of Alfin‐like family affects seed size and drought tolerance in rice, Plant J. 2022, 112: 1176-1193.
[4] Liao Z#, Yu H#, Duan J, Yuan K, Yu C, Meng X, Kou L, Chen M, Jing Y, Liu G, Smith S, Li J* (2019) SLR1 inhibits MOC1 degradation to coordinate tiller number and plant height in rice, Nature Commun. 10 (2738).
[5] Duan J#, Yu H#, Yuan K, Liao Z, Meng X, Jing Y, Liu G, Chu J, Li J* (2019) Strigolactone promotes cytokinin degradation through transcriptional activation of CYTOKININ OXIDASE/DEHYDROGENASE 9 in rice, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116 (26).