Xuelai Lai is a professor at the College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, and a researcher at the National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and Hongshan Laboratory. From 2013 to 2016, he conducted his PhD research at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, earning a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, under the supervision of Bauke W. Dijkstra, a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organization. From 2016 to 2021, he completed postdoctoral research at the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge (under Philip Wigge), and at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (with François Parcy and Chloe Zubieta), focusing on plant reproductive development and environmental interactions.

Dr. Lai has been selected for the prestigious National High-Level Youth Talent Program and leads several key projects, including the National Key Research and Development Program Youth Scientist Project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation for Outstanding Young Scholars.

His research primarily focuses on rice, investigating the genetic and molecular mechanisms by which plants sense environmental and stress signals, with a special emphasis on temperature signaling, including high (>38°C), low (<10°C), and ambient (20-32°C) temperatures. His goal is to develop climate-resilient rice varieties to address global food security challenges in the face of climate change.

Dr. Lai’s lab employs advanced techniques such as classical genetics (GWAS, QTL mapping), transcriptional regulatory technologies (DAP-seq, CUT&Tag), biophysics (protein dynamics, high-resolution structural biology), and biochemistry/molecular biology (characterization of protein liquid-liquid phase separation).

Academic positions:

2021-Present: Principal Investigator, National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Wuhan, China

2021-Present: Principal Investigator, Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Wuhan, China

2021-Present: Full Professor, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China  

2017-2021: Postdoc, The French National Centre for Scientific Research (Francois Parcy and Chloe Zubieta laboratory), Grenoble, France

2016-2017: Postdoc, The Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge (Philip A. Wigge), Cambridge, UK

Education:

2013-2016: University of Groningen (Bauke W. Dijkstra laboratory), Groningen, The Netherlands, PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology

2009-2012: Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China, master’s in food science and technology

2005-2009: Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, Jilin, China, bachelor’s in food science and technology

Representative publications (* co-first author, # corresponding author):

Hu, D., Yao, Y., Lv, Y., You, J., Zhang, Y., Lv, Q., Li, J., Hutin, S., Xiong, H., Zubieta, C., Lai, X.#, Xiong, L.# (2024). The OsSRO1c-OsDREB2B complex undergoes protein phase transition to enhance cold tolerance in rice. Molecular Plant, 17(10):1520-1538.

Wang, H.*, Ye, T.*, Guo, Z., Yao, Y., Tu, H., Wang, P., Zhang, Y., Wang, Y., Li, X., Li, B., Xiong, H., Lai, X.#, Xiong, L.# (2024). A double-stranded RNA binding protein enhances drought resistance via protein phase separation in rice. Nature Communications, 15 (2514).

Lai, X.*, Vega-Leon, R.*, Hugouvieux, V.*#, Blanc-Mathieu, R. van der Wal, F., Lucas, J., Silva, C.S., Jourdain, A., Muino, J., Nanao, M.H., Immink, R., Kaufmann, K., Parcy, F., Smaczniak, C.#, Zubieta C.# (2021). The Intervening Domain Is Required For DNA-binding and Functional Identity of Plant MADS Transcription Factors. Nature Communications, 12 (4760).

Lai, X.*, Blanc-Mathieu, R.*, GrandVuillemin L., Huang, Y., Stigliani, A., Lucas, J., Thévenon, E., Loue-Manifel, J., Turchi, L., Daher, H., Brun-Hernandez, E., Vachon, G., Latrasse, D., Benhamed, M., Dumas, R., Zubieta, C., and Parcy, F.# (2021). The LEAFY floral regulator displays pioneer transcription factor properties. Molecular Plant, 14(5):829-837.

Lai, X.*, Stigliani, A.*, Lucas, J., Hugouvieux, V., Parcy, F.#, and Zubieta, C.# (2020). Genome-wide binding of SEPALLATA3 and AGAMOUS complexes determined by sequential DNA-affinity purification sequencing. Nucleic Acids Research, 48 (17), 9637–9648.

Silva, C.S.*#, Nayak, A.*, Lai, X.*, Hutin, S.#, Hugouvieux, V., Jung, J.-H., López-Vidriero, I., Franco-Zorrilla, J.M., Panigrahi, K.C.S., Nanao, M.H., Wigge, P.A., and Zubieta, C.,# (2020). Molecular mechanisms of Evening Complex activity in Arabidopsis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117 (12), 6901–6909.

Lai, X.*, Chahtane, H.*, Martin-Arevalillo, R., Zubieta, C., and Parcy, F.# (2020). Contrasted evolutionary trajectories of plant transcription factors. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 54, 101–107.

Lai, X.#, Stigliani, A., Vachon, G., Carles, C., Smaczniak, C., Zubieta, C., Kaufmann, K., and Parcy, F.# (2019). Building Transcription Factor Binding Site Models to Understand Gene Regulation in Plants. Molecular Plant, 12 (6), 743–763.

Lai, X., Wichers, H.J., Soler‐Lopez, M.#, and Dijkstra, B.W.# (2017). Structure of Human Tyrosinase Related Protein 1 Reveals a Binuclear Zinc Active Site Important for Melanogenesis. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 56 (33), 9812–9815.

Other publications:

Hugouvieux, V., Blanc-Mathieu, R., Janeau, A., Paul, M., Lucas, J., Xu, X., Ye, H., Lai, X., LeHir, S., Guillotin, A., Galien, A., Yan, W., Nanao, M., Kaufmann, K., Parcy, F., Zubieta, C.# (2024). SEPALLATA-driven MADS transcription factor tetramerization is required for inner whorl floral organ development. Plant Cell, koae151.

Li, W.*, Yan, J.*, Zhang, Y., Zhang, F., Guan, Z., Yao, Y., Chang, Y., Tu, H., Li, X., Wang, H., Xiong, H., Lai, X., Yin, P., Xiong, L#. (2023). Serine protease NAL1 exerts pleiotropic functions through degradation of TOPLESS-related corepressor in rice. Nature Plants, 9(7), 1130-1142.

Jung, J.-H.*, Barbosa, A.D.*, Hutin, S.*, Kumita, J.R., Gao, M., Derwort, D., Silva, C.S., Lai, X., Pierre, E., Geng, F., Kim, S.B., Baek, S., Zubieta, C., Jaeger, K.E., and Wigge, P.A.# (2020). A prion-like domain in ELF3 functions as a thermosensor in Arabidopsis. Nature, 585, 256–260.

Ezer, D., Jung, J.-H., Lan, H., Biswas, S., Gregoire, L., Box, M.S., Charoensawan, V., Cortijo, S., Lai, X., Stöckle, D., Zubieta, C., Jaeger, K.E., and Wigge, P.A.# (2017). The evening complex coordinates environmental and endogenous signals in Arabidopsis. Nature Plants, 3, 17087.

Come and join us:

We are part of the National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and the newly established Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, which are both among the most advanced and promising plant and crop research centers in China. Our lab is recruiting postdoc researchers (1-2), PhD students (1-2 per year) and master students (2-4 per year). We welcome motivated researchers and students who are interested in key words, e.g., climate change, temperature sensing, crop genetic improvement, transcription factor and cis-element interaction, to join us. We provide competitive salary, housing and state-of-the-art research facilities.

Contacts:

Email: xuelei_lai@mail.hzau.edu.cn

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Xuelei_Lai

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=3NaY5wUAAAAJ&hl=en

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xu

Address:

B612, Rice temperature sensing group,

National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement,

Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Huazhong Agricultural University,

No.1, Shizishan Street, Hongshan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, P.R.China