Biography
Xuemei Chen received her B.S. degree in biology from Peking University, China in 1988 and a doctorate in biochemistry from Cornell University, USA in 1995. After postdoctoral training at California Institute of Technology, she started her assistant professor position in 1999 at the Waksman Institute at Rutgers University. She was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and won the Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence at Rutgers University. She moved to University of California, Riverside in 2005 as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2009 and distinguished professor in 2013. Starting from Feb 2023, she has been Chair Professor and Dean at the School of Life Sciences, Peking University, China. In 2006, she received the Charles Albert Shull award from American Society of Plant Biologists. In 2011, she was elected an AAAS Fellow. She was an HHMI-GBMF investigator from 2012 to 2018. In 2013, she was elected into the US National Academy of Sciences. She won the Gibbs Medal from the American Society of Plant Biologists in 2023 and the Outstanding Scientist Award from the Qiushi Science and Technology Foundation in 2024. Her work has focused on flower development, small RNAs, and RNA modifications in plants.
Education
1984-1988 B.S. Peking University
1989-1995 Ph.D. Cornell University
Professional Experience
2023- Dean, School of Life Sciences, Peking University
2023- Endowed chair professor, Peking University
2013-2023 Distinguished Professor, University of California, Riverside
2009-2013 Professor, University of California, Riverside
2005-2009 Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside
1999-2005 Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
1995-1998 Postdoc, California Institute of Technology
Social Services
Keystone symposia Scientific Advisory Board， 2022-2025
Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Institute, Tubingen, 2023-2026
Gibbs Medal Committee, American Association of Plant Biologists, 2025
Advisory board member, NSFC, 2024-
Editorial Activities
Editorial Board member of Developmental Cell, 12/2024 - present
Senior editor, The Plant Cell, 04/2020 – present
Consulting Editor of PLOS Genetics, January 2016 - present
Editorial Board member of National Science Review 2015 – present
Editorial Board member of Molecular Plant, December 2014 – present
Editorial Board member of Science in China, 2014 - present
The Chen lab initially studied how the identities of floral organs are specified and uncovered the functions of a number of RNA-binding proteins as floral homeotic genes that specify the identities of floral organs. The studies led to the discovery that some of the proteins act in the metabolism or function of microRNAs. The lab then switched research focus and investigated how microRNAs are made, degraded, and how they regulate target genes.
At present, the lab focuses on three main areas of investigation. One is to study how microRNAs move from cell to cell or systemically in plants and how mobile RNAs serve as intercellular signals that coordinate the growth of plant organs in response to warm temperature. The second is to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the deposition, removal and molecular functions of non-canonical RNA caps such as NAD, FAD, and dpCoA caps. The third is to investigate the development of plastids with a focus on understanding gene expression and RNA modifications in plastids.
Jing Li, Brandon Le, Ye Xu, Suikang Wang, Lei Gao, Beixin Mo, Lin Liu*, Xuemei Chen*. (2025). ALTERED MERISTEM PROGRAM1 impairs RNA silencing through repressing the biogenesis of inverted repeats-derived siRNAs in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell, DOI:/10.1093/plcell/koae293.
Runlai Hang*,Hao Li, Runyu Wang, Hao Hu, Meng Chen, Chenjiang You* and Xuemei Chen*. (2024). HOT3/eIF5B1 confers Kozak motif-dependent translational control of photosynthesis-associated nuclear genes for chloroplast biogenesis. Nature Comm. 15, 9878.
Xufeng Wang, Dongli Yu, Jiancheng Yu, Hao Hu, Runlai Hang, Zachary Amador, Qi Chen, Jijie Chai, and Xuemei Chen*. (2024). Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain-containing proteins exhibit deNAMing activity towards NAD-capped RNAs. Nature Comm. 15: 2261. 10.1038/s41467-024-46499-y
Qing Sang, Lusheng Fan, Tianxiang Liu, YongjianQiu, Juan Du, Beixin Mo, Meng Chen*, and Xuemei Chen*. (2023). MicroRNA156 conditions auxin sensitivity to enable growth plasticity in response to environmental changes in Arabidopsis. Nature Comm. 14, 1449.
Yuan Wang, Brandon H. Le, Jianqiang Wang, Chenjiang You, Yonghui Zhao, Mary Galli, Ye Xu, Andrea Gallavotti, Thomas Eulgem, Beixin Mo*, and Xuemei Chen*. (2022). A novel factor that recruits and excludes Pol IV-mediated DNA methylation in a site-specific manner. Science Advances 8, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adc9454.
Lusheng Fan, Cui Zhang, Yong Zhang, Ethan Stewart, Jakub Jez, Keiji Nakajima, and Xuemei Chen*. (2022). Microtubules promote the non-cell autonomous action of microRNAs by inhibiting their cytoplasmic loading onto ARGONAUTE1 in Arabidopsis. Dev. Cell. 57, 995-1008.
Xuemei Chen* and Oded Rechavi*. (2021). Plant and animal small RNA communications between cells and organisms. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 23, 85–203.
Hao Hu, Nora Flynn, Hailei Zhang, Chenjiang You, Runlai Hang, Xufeng Wang, Huan Zhong, Zhulong Chan, Yiji Xia*, and Xuemei Chen*. (2021). SPAAC-NAD-seq, a sensitive and accurate method to profile NAD+-capped transcripts. PNAS 118 (13) e2025595118.
Yuan Wang, Shaofang Li, Yonghui Zhao, Chenjiang You, Brandon Le, Zhizhong Gong, Beixin Mo, Yiji Xia and Xuemei Chen*. (2019). NAD+-capped RNAs are widespread in the Arabidopsis transcriptome and can probably be translated. PNAS 116, 12094-12102
Zhenxia Su, Lihua Zhao, Yuanyuan Zhao, Shaofang Li, So Youn Won, Hanyang Cai, Lulu Wang, Zhenfang Li, Yuan Qin*, and Xuemei Chen*. (2017). The THO complex non-cell autonomously represses female germline specification through the TAS3-ARF3 module. Current Biology 27, 1597–1609.
Yu Yu, Lijuan Ji, Brandon Le, Jixian Zhai, Jiayi Chen, Elizabeth Luscher, Lei Gao, Chunyan Liu, Xiaofeng Cao, Beixin Mo, Jinbiao Ma, Blake C. Meyers, and Xuemei Chen*. (2017). ARGONAUTE10 promotes the degradation of miR165/6 through the SDN1 and SDN2 exonucleases in Arabidopsis. PLoS Biology 15(2): e2001272.
Shengben Li, Lin Liu, Xiaohong Zhuang, Yu Yu, Xigang Liu, Xia Cui, Lijuan Ji, Zhiqiang Pan, Xiaofeng Cao, Beixin Mo, Fuchun Zhang, Natasha Raikhel, Liwen Jiang, and Xuemei Chen*. (2013). microRNAs inhibit the translation of target mRNAs on the endoplasmic reticulum in Arabidopsis. Cell 153, 562-574.
Yuanyuan Zhao, Yu Yu, Jixian Zhai, Vanitharani Ramachandran, Thanh Theresa Dinh, Blake C. Meyers, Beixin Mo*, and Xuemei Chen*. (2012). The Arabidopsis nucleotidyl transferase HESO1 uridylates unmethylated small RNAs to trigger their degradation. Current Biology 22, 689-694.
Vanitharani Ramachandran and Xuemei Chen*. (2008). Degradation of microRNAs by a family of exoribonucleases in Arabidopsis. Science 321, 1490-1492.
Junjie Li, Zhiyong Yang, Bin Yu, Jun Liu, and Xuemei Chen*. (2005). Methylation protects miRNAs and siRNAs from a 3’ end uridylation activity in Arabidopsis. Current Biology 15, 1501-1507.
Bin Yu, Zhiyong Yang, Junjie Li, Svetlana Minakhina, Maocheng Yang, Richard W. Padgett, Ruth Steward, and Xuemei Chen*. (2005). Methylation as a crucial step in plant microRNA biogenesis. Science 307, 932-935.
Xuemei Chen*. (2004). A microRNA as a translational repressor of APETALA2 in Arabidopsis flower development. Science 303, 2022-2025.
