<div dir="ltr"><div style="text-align:center"><img src="cid:ii_mgfmfize0" alt="cepceb logo.PNG" width="401" height="60"></div><div style="text-align:center"><b style="text-align:left;font-size:xx-large"><font face="georgia, serif">Qi Mu</font></b></div><div class="gmail-adn gmail-ads" style="border-left:none;padding:0px;display:flex"><div class="gmail-gs" style="margin:0px;min-width:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;width:auto"><div class="gmail-" style=""><div id="gmail-:1dz" class="gmail-ii gmail-gt" style="direction:ltr;margin:8px 0px 0px;padding:0px;overflow-x:hidden"><div id="gmail-:1dy" class="gmail-a3s gmail-aiL" style="direction:ltr;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;line-height:1.5;overflow:auto hidden"><div dir="ltr" style=""><div dir="ltr" style=""><div class="gmail_quote" style=""><div dir="ltr" style=""><p style="font-size:small;text-align:center;direction:ltr;line-height:1.2;margin-top:4.2pt;margin-right:48.8pt;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="georgia, serif" style=""><br></font></p><p style="text-align:center;direction:ltr;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 48.8pt 0px 0px"><font face="georgia, serif" style="" size="4" color="#073763"><b><span id="m_2498781387303997558m_-1935831837542261647m_5967015443847787850gmail-docs-internal-guid-eac4411f-7fff-0f97-88a6-92556af3aeae" style=""><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></span>Integrating genetic regulation and phenotypic plasticity reveals plant-environment interactions and opportunities for crop improvement</b></font></p><p style="font-size:small;text-align:center;direction:ltr;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 48.8pt 0px 0px"><b style="text-align:start"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4" color="#073763"><br></font></b></p><p style="font-size:small;text-align:center;direction:ltr;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.5pt;margin-right:48.8pt;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><b>Date:</b> Friday, October 17</span></font></p><p style="font-size:small;text-align:center;direction:ltr;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.5pt;margin-right:48.8pt;margin-bottom:0px"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><b>Time:</b> 12:00 pm-1:00pm</font></span></p><p style="font-size:small;text-align:center;direction:ltr;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.5pt;margin-right:48.8pt;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="georgia, serif"><b style="color:black;font-size:12pt">Location: </b><span style="color:black;font-size:12pt">Genomics Auditorium 1102</span></font></p><p style="font-size:small;direction:ltr;text-align:center;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.5pt;margin-right:48.8pt;margin-bottom:0px"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></span></p><p style="font-size:small;direction:ltr;text-align:center;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0px;margin-right:48.8pt;margin-bottom:0px"><span style="color:black"><b><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Abstract:</font></b></span></p><div style=""><span id="m_2498781387303997558m_-1935831837542261647m_5967015443847787850gmail-docs-internal-guid-6a7a217a-7fff-aeee-d41a-23b2ade4b540" style=""><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><font face="georgia, serif" style="" size="4">Climate hazards pose significant challenges to global food security, making it essential to understand how environmental factors shape plant performance. Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of a genotype to express different phenotypes across environments, represents a key mechanism enabling plants to cope with environmental variability. As sessile organisms, plants rely on intricate regulatory systems to integrate environmental cues into developmental programs. Using sorghum plant height as a model trait, our work revealed a complex interplay among the genome, ontogeny, and environment underlying phenotypic plasticity. Large-scale, multi-environment, and time-series analyses of a recombinant inbred line population, combined with statistical modeling, revealed that sorghum height is strongly affected by the diurnal temperature range during a critical early growth window (40-53 days). Through fine-mapping and CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis, we identified a MYB transcription factor underlying a plastic plant height QTL, qHT7.1 in sorghum and its ortholog Brachytic 1 in maize. Looking ahead, my lab aims to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypic plasticity and incorporate these insights into breeding strategies to improve crop resilience against both biotic and abiotic stresses. Together, these findings highlight how integrating genetic regulation with phenotypic plasticity analyses can illuminate plant-environment interactions and open new avenues for crop adaptation and improvement.</font></p></spa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