The Outreach activities organized by Xu lab provide the public opportunities to walk into a plant science lab and get to know basic concepts about plant science.
GEAIR
On August 11, 2025, We developed a crop-robot co-design strategy in tomatoes by combining genome editing with artificial-intelligence-based robots (GEAIR). We generated male-sterile lines bearing flowers with exserted stigmas, and then trained a mobile robot to automatically recognize and cross-pollinate those stigmas. GEAIR enables automated F1 hybrid breeding with efficiency comparable to manual pollination and facilitates the rapid breeding of stress-resilient and flavorful tomatoes when combined with de novo domestication under speed-breeding conditions. Multiplex gene editing in soybean recapitulated the male-sterile, exserted-stigma phenotype, potentially unlocking robotized hybrid breeding. We demonstrate the potential of GEAIR in boosting efficiency and lowering costs through automated, faster breeding of climate-resilient crops.
Academic exchange activities
From May 29th to June 4th, 2024, Margarethe Karpe, a PhD student from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, came to the laboratory for academic exchanges. During one-week studying, she learned how to extract DNA and some managerial methods of planting tomatoes in plant factories and greenhouses.
Outreach program
The Outreach program was held on April 24 in the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology. We had an opportunity to educate the public on the biology and technology used in tomato breeding.
The 15th CAS "Public Science Day"
The Public Science Day was held on May 18 and 19 in the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology. Public from different ages and backgrounds had access to the laboratories and greenhouse, and opportunities to handle simple experiments, like pipetting and centrifugation in the lab were provided.
Tuanjie lake NO. 2 middle school plant science workshop
In the morning of June 4th 2019, students from Tuanjie lake NO.2 middle took a Science Tour in Xu lab, talked with the undergraduates and PhDs in the lab, learning what it means to work with science and basic knowledge related to plant molecular science.
Undergradute Reserach Programme
Carmilla Arzola from University of Florida did her internship in Xu lab. She spent here the summer, learning how to define the developmental stages of tomato and dissect tomato shoot meristems.
