Jianquan Liu

Jianquan Liu has long been engaged in evolutionary ecology and biogeography researches. As corresponding author (including co-corresponding), he has published over 200 papers in journals including Cell, Science, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Nature Genetics, Science Advances, Nature Climate Change, Nature Plants, Nature Communications, PNAS, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Molecular Ecology, and New Phytologist, with over 25,000 citations, and has long been a highly cited author. He and his research team have conducted extensive field surveys and ecological experiments in harsh regions such as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau for many years, collecting and preserving substantial germplasm resources including seeds, DNA, and specimens. Based on field work and employing multidisciplinary approaches, they have systematically revealed evolutionary mechanisms of species diversification and ecological adaptation to extreme environments. His major academic contributions include: (1) elucidating the primary drivers of species diversification on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and dissecting the molecular ecological mechanisms by which representative animals and plants adapt to extreme environments; (2) establishing a concise molecular genetic model for homoploid hybrid speciation, developing new methods to identify key genes involved in hybrid speciation, and revealing the molecular genetic basis of phenotypic and reproductive isolation during homoploid hybrid speciation as the general rule; (3) establishing a new research framework for ancestral karyotypes (paleogenomes) and chromosomal evolution, as well as novel methods using chromosomal fusion sites to study phylogenetic relationships at high taxonomic levels, and applying these to phylogenetic studies of multiple taxa. Based on analyses of wild plant traits and genetic diversity, he has led his team to obtain five new plant varieties through hybridization, introduction, and domestication.