UFGI faculty profile – wen-yuan song

Name: Wen-Yuan Song

Born: Lanzhou, P.R. China

Position at UF: Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, CALS

Job before this one: Post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis

Current research interest, in layman’s terms:

I have been investigating how a rice receptor-like kinase (XA21) initiates a signal transduction pathway leading to resistance to the bacterial blight disease. Recently, the rice genome has been sequenced and a total of 1580 putative kinases have been identified. As a starting point to understand rice kinase networks, I am involved in a project to identify proteins that are associated with 300 rice kinases. To achieve this goal, my laboratory has developed high throughput methods to perform large-scale yeast two-hybrid analyses.       

Prior Research: I have worked on molecular cloning and characterization of the rice disease resistance gene Xa21.  After cloning this gene, I sequenced the Xa21 locus to understand how the disease resistance gene has evolved.

Education: B.S. in 1988 from Lanzhou University, P.R. China

                   Ph.D. in 1995 from the Institute of Genetics, P.R. China

Family: Married with two children

When I'm not at work, I am: playing with my children (Joanna and Eric).

Something always in your refrigerator: ice cream.  My son really enjoys it.

People would be surprised to know that: I just learned that I am not good at fishing although I have been “fishing” genes and proteins for a while.

Contact me at: wsong@ifas.ufl.edu