My recent research mainly focuses on the following two areas:

1.    The mechanism of plant virus transmission by insect vectors. Of the approximately 1,200 plant virus species that have been described to date, more than 75% are transmitted by insect vectors. However, the mechanisms of plant virus transmission by its insect vector remain largely unknown. Begomoviruses are a group of single-stranded plant DNA viruses and are exclusively transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci in a circulative-nonpropagative manner. During the last ten years, we mainly studied: 1）the transmission of begomoviruses by different species of whiteflies; 2）the interactions between whitefly and begomoviruses; and 3) whitefly proteins that are involved in begomovirus transmission.

2.    The interactions of phloem-feeding insects with host plant. Phloem-feeding insects, such as whitefly, aphid and plant hopper, are important agricultural pests and vectors of many plant viruses. These insects use highly modified mouthparts (stylets) to feed in plant phloem sieve elements. Phloem-feeding insects differ significantly from insect herbivores with chewing mouthparts in terms of interactions with plants. However, how plant recognizes phloem-feeding insects and responds to their feeding remain largely unknown. Hence, systematic exploration of the unique interactions between phloem feeding insects and their host plants may add to our knowledge of insect-plant interactions, a research field with exciting breakthroughs in recent decades.