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I am a senior undergraduate student in Northwest A&F University, China and my major is Agronomy. I am applying for Plant Breeding M.S. program in Cornell University because I am really interested in it and I wish I can make some achievements in this field. My long-term goal is to become a professor in a university working both on spreading agricultural knowledge and conducting researches in plant breading. To achieve my career goal, I am planning to pursuit M.S. and Ph.D. degrees first in about 7 years, continue to postdoctoral studies in the second step and then work as a research assistant in a lab before I can be a professor in a university. And now I believe the Plant Breeding M.S. program in Cornell, which has a top plant breeding department, can equip me with broader knowledge in this field and help me achieve my goal in the future.
Now many people often ask me why I decide to engage in the field of scientific research. Honestly, I would also be confused if I were a freshman, however, now I have a clear sense of what I want to do. During my university career, I participated in several teaching internships, in which teachers would instruct students to visit or investigate some villages and farms. Under the instructions of teachers, I learnt that crop variety plays an important role in boosting yield and local economy, which can solve problems of hunger and poverty. Moreover, through my major coursework I gradually had a deeper understanding that global climate change and population growth make food security an issue that cannot be ignored. I then realized that plant breeding is a critical tool in the fight for food security, and it arose my interest.
I have two experiences of doing research related to plant breeding and genetics. In the first experience, I worked as an assistant and helped professor Wenhua Nan, whose expertise is maize breeding, conduct some experiments in fields and test seeds. During that period, I was a sophomore and it was my first time to do research with a professor, he taught me a lot of knowledge about maize and breeding that cannot be acquired by only reading books, such as how to identify different maize diseases and so on. I appreciated him so much for bringing me to scientific research for the first time in my life and I could feel the passion for breeding from him.
My second experience is leading a group to conduct a study under the guidance of professor Yong Wang, who focuses on crop molecular biology. The research is Transcriptional Regulation Study of Root Suberin in Brachypodium distachyon. Suberin is a macromolecule in specialized plant cell walls and its main function is as a barrier to movement of water and solutes, which plays an important role in resisting diseases and toxins. We realized the importance of suberin and believed that if we can help explain the biosynthetic mechanism of suberin, that would provide a reference for breeding drought-resistant crops. After looking up lots of information, we found that most of studies about suberin were based on Arabidopsis (a model plant), so we decided to conduct the research in Brachypodium distachyon, which is also a critical model plant of crops but lack of focus. We screened for a gene called BdMYB41, which regulate the synthesis of suberin, then studied the subcellular localization of protein BdMYB41 and found it is located in cell nucleus. Moreover, through spatio-temporal expression pattern analysis of BdMYB41, we concluded that it is mainly expressed in root. We also found there is interaction between BdMYB41 and the promoter region of suberin synthesis gene BdFAR4 after several experiments. Now my group proceed the study and work on using overexpression and CRISPR/Cas9 techniques to edit BdMYB41 in Brachypodium distachyon to validate the gene's function.
The experience not only made me learn much knowledge in molecular biology, but showed me that doing experiments and exploring something unknown are very exciting, so now I decide to attend the graduate school and step on the path of doing scientific research.
Plant Breeding M.S. program application
I am a senior undergraduate student in Northwest A&F University, China and my major is Agronomy. I am applying for Plant Breeding M.S. program in Cornell University because I am really interested in it and I wish I can make some achievements in this field. My long-term goal is to become a professor in a university working both on spreading agricultural knowledge and conducting researches in plant breading. To achieve my career goal, I am planning to pursuit M.S. and Ph.D. degrees first in about 7 years, continue to postdoctoral studies in the second step and then work as a research assistant in a lab before I can be a professor in a university. And now I believe the Plant Breeding M.S. program in Cornell, which has a top plant breeding department, can equip me with broader knowledge in this field and help me achieve my goal in the future.
Now many people often ask me why I decide to engage in the field of scientific research. Honestly, I would also be confused if I were a freshman, however, now I have a clear sense of what I want to do. During my university career, I participated in several teaching internships, in which teachers would instruct students to visit or investigate some villages and farms. Under the instructions of teachers, I learnt that crop variety plays an important role in boosting yield and local economy, which can solve problems of hunger and poverty. Moreover, through my major coursework I gradually had a deeper understanding that global climate change and population growth make food security an issue that cannot be ignored. I then realized that plant breeding is a critical tool in the fight for food security, and it arose my interest.
I have two experiences of doing research related to plant breeding and genetics. In the first experience, I worked as an assistant and helped professor Wenhua Nan, whose expertise is maize breeding, conduct some experiments in fields and test seeds. During that period, I was a sophomore and it was my first time to do research with a professor, he taught me a lot of knowledge about maize and breeding that cannot be acquired by only reading books, such as how to identify different maize diseases and so on. I appreciated him so much for bringing me to scientific research for the first time in my life and I could feel the passion for breeding from him.
My second experience is leading a group to conduct a study under the guidance of professor Yong Wang, who focuses on crop molecular biology. The research is Transcriptional Regulation Study of Root Suberin in Brachypodium distachyon. Suberin is a macromolecule in specialized plant cell walls and its main function is as a barrier to movement of water and solutes, which plays an important role in resisting diseases and toxins. We realized the importance of suberin and believed that if we can help explain the biosynthetic mechanism of suberin, that would provide a reference for breeding drought-resistant crops. After looking up lots of information, we found that most of studies about suberin were based on Arabidopsis (a model plant), so we decided to conduct the research in Brachypodium distachyon, which is also a critical model plant of crops but lack of focus. We screened for a gene called BdMYB41, which regulate the synthesis of suberin, then studied the subcellular localization of protein BdMYB41 and found it is located in cell nucleus. Moreover, through spatio-temporal expression pattern analysis of BdMYB41, we concluded that it is mainly expressed in root. We also found there is interaction between BdMYB41 and the promoter region of suberin synthesis gene BdFAR4 after several experiments. Now my group proceed the study and work on using overexpression and CRISPR/Cas9 techniques to edit BdMYB41 in Brachypodium distachyon to validate the gene's function.
The experience not only made me learn much knowledge in molecular biology, but showed me that doing experiments and exploring something unknown are very exciting, so now I decide to attend the graduate school and step on the path of doing scientific research.
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