Research Interests
I have been involved in crop/maize research since I was an undergraduate in Henan Agricultural University, China. I am passionate and committed to a career understanding the molecular mechanisms which regulate growth and development of agricultural plants, especially corn and other grasses. I finished my Master degree at the Institute of Crop Science in Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science under Dr. Chuanxiao Xie’s supervision and then moved to the United States to pursue maize research and acquired PhD at East Carolina University under Dr. Beth Thompson’s Lab working on floral development and translation regulation by microRNAs in maize.
In the Bartlett lab, I integrate computational data analysis, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, and molecular techniques to understand how gene expression of developmental genes are regulated and how they have evolved in the grasses (specifically in maize and brachypodium).
Key Publications
Kirk R Amundson†, Anat Hendelman†, Danielle Ciren, Hailong Yang, Amber E deNeve, Shai Tal, Adar Sulema, David Jackson, Madelaine E Bartlett*, Zachary B Lippman*, Idan Efroni*. "A deep-time landscape of plant cis-regulatory sequence evolution." Science (2026). († Equal contributions for co-first author). Accepted
Ben Dillon Cox†, Hailong Yang†, Joshua Moore†, Neha Ahuja, Kirk Amundson, Nicole Aponte-Santiago, Cagney Coomer, Yan Gong, Amy L. Herbert, Concepcion Manzano, Jesús Martínez-Gómez, James Satterlee, Siobhán M. Brady*, Crystal D. Rogers*. "Reprogramming our fate: a postdoctoral reflection on current challenges and prospects for developmental biology." Developmental Biology (2025). († Equal contributions for co-first author). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.11.012
Hailong Yang, and Beth Thompson*. "Widespread changes to the translational landscape in a maize microRNA biogenesis mutant." the Plant Journal 119, no. 4 (2024): 1986-2000. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.16902
Hailong Yang, Kate Nukunya, Queying Ding, and Beth E. Thompson*. "Tissue-specific transcriptomics reveal functional differences in floral development." Plant Physiology 188, no. 2 (2022): 1158-1173. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiab557
YANG, Hai-long*, Dong Le, Wang Hui, Chang-lin LIU, Liu Fang, and Chuan-xiao XIE*. "A simple way to visualize detailed phylogenetic tree of huge genome-wide SNP data constructed by SNPhylo." Journal of Integrative Agriculture 17, no. 9 (2018): 1972-1978. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2095-3119(18)62023-4
Dongdong Xu, Hailong Yang, Cheng Zou, Wen‐Xue Li, Yunbi Xu, and Chuanxiao Xie*. "Identification and functional characterization of the AGO1 ortholog in maize." Journal of Integrative Plant Biology 58, no. 8 (2016): 749-758. https://doi.org/10.1111/jipb.12467
