Education
Research Positions
Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley, 2025~now
Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley, 2019~2025
Assistant Professor, Tsinghua University, 2017~2019
Postdoc Researcher, Duke University / HHMI, 2013~2017
Research Interests
The Gu lab studies the intricate biological processes and molecular machines that operate at the surface of the nucleus — the control center of the cell. They focus on elucidating the protein landscape of the plant nuclear envelope and are investigating the functional importance of novel nuclear membrane proteins and the nuclear pore complex in organizing nuclear structures, coordinating intracellular communication, controlling cell division, and managing cellular responses to stresses. They also explore the specialization and collaboration of different nuclear transport receptors in mediating selective nuclear transport and regulating biomolecular condensation of signaling cargos under various environmental cues and their significance in the determination of responsive patterns of the plant cell.
Selected Publications
See the complete publication list on our lab website: https://sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/gu-lab
- Tang, Y., Liu, X., Fang, Y., Calvanese, E., Hong, Y., and Gu, Y.# (2025). Nuclear lamina phase separation orchestrates stress-induced transcriptional responses in plants. Developmental Cell 60: 3156
- Fang, Y., Tang, Y., Xie, P., Hsieh, K., Nam, H., Jia, M., Reyes, A.V., Liu, Y., Xu, S., Xu, X. and Gu, Y.# (2025). Nucleoporin PNET1 coordinates mitotic nuclear pore complex dynamics for rapid cell division. Nature Plants 11: 295-308.
- Tang, Y., Yang, X., Huang, A., Seong, K., Ye, M., Li, M., Zhao, Q., Krasileva, K., and Gu, Y.# (2024). Proxiome assembly of the plant nuclear pore reveals an essential hub for gene expression regulation. Nature Plants 10: 1005.
- Jia, M., Chen, X., Shi, X., Fang, Y. and Gu, Y.# (2023). Nuclear transport receptor KA120 regulates molecular condensation of MAC3 to coordinate plant immune activation. Cell Host & Microbe 31: 1685.
- Tang, Y., Ho, M., Kang, B., and Gu, Y.# (2022). GBPL3 localizes to the nuclear pore complex and functionally connects the nuclear basket with the nucleoskeleton in plants. PLOS Biology 20 (10): 23001831.
- Wang, W.# and Gu, Y.# (2022). The emerging role of biomolecular condensates in plant immunity. The Plant Cell 34: 1568.
- Tang, Y., Dong, Q., Wang, T., Gong, L., and Gu, Y.# (2022). PNET2 is a component of the plant nuclear lamina and is required for proper genome organization and activity. Developmental Cell 57: 19.
- Fang, Y. and Gu, Y.# (2021). Regulation of plant immunity by nuclear membrane-associated mechanisms. Frontiers in Immunology 12: 771065.
- Jia, M., Shen, X., Tang, Y., Shi, X., and Gu, Y.# (2021). A karyopherin constrains nuclear activity of the NLR protein SNC1 and is essential to prevent autoimmunity in Arabidopsis. Molecular Plant 14: 1733.
- Xu, F., Jia, M., Li, X., Tang, Y., Jiang, K., Bao, J., and Gu, Y.# (2021). Exportin-4 Coordinates Nuclear Shuttling of TOPLESS Family Transcription Corepressors to Regulate Plant Immunity. The Plant Cell 33: 697.
- Li, X., and Gu, Y.# (2020). Structural and functional insight into the nuclear pore complex and nuclear transport receptors in plant stress signaling. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 58: 60.
- Tang, Y., Huang, A., and Gu, Y.# (2020). Global profiling of plant nuclear membrane proteome in Arabidopsis. Nature Plants 6: 838-847
- Huang, A., Tang, Y., Shi, X., Jia, M., Zhu, J., Yan, X., Chen, H., and Gu, Y.# (2020). Proximity labeling proteomics reveals critical regulators for inner nuclear membrane protein degradation in plants. Nature Communications 11: 3284.
- Gu, Y.# (2018). The nuclear pore complex: a strategic platform for regulating cell signaling. New Phytologist 219: 25-30. (Tansley Insight by Tansley Medal Finalist 2017)
- Gu, Y.#, Zavaliev, R. and Dong X.# (2017). Membrane trafficking in plant immunity. Molecular Plant 10: 1026-1034.
- Gu, Y., Zebell, S., Liang, Z., Wang, S., Kang, B. and Dong, X. (2016). Nuclear pore permeabilization is a convergent signaling event in effector-triggered immunity. Cell 166: 1526-1538.
- Gu, Y. and Dong X. (2015). Stromules: signal conduits for plant immunity. Developmental Cell 34: 3-4.
- Wang, S.*, Gu, Y.*, Zebell, S.*, Anderson, L.K., Wang, W., Mohan, R., and Dong, X. (2014). A noncanonical role for the CKI-RB-E2F cell-cycle signaling pathway in plant effector-triggered immunity. Cell Host-Microbe 16: 787-794.
- Serrano, I.*, Gu, Y.*, Qi, D., Dubiella, U. and Innes, R.W. (2014). The Arabidopsis EDR1 protein kinase negatively regulates the ATL1 E3 ubiquitin ligase to suppress cell death. The Plant Cell 26: 4532-4546.
- Gu, Y. and Innes, R.W. (2012). The Keep On Going (KEG) protein of Arabidopsis regulates intracellular protein trafficking and is degraded during fungal infection. The Plant Cell 24: 4717-4730.
- Gu, Y. and Innes, R.W. (2011). The Keep On Going (KEG) protein of Arabidopsis physically interacts with the Enhanced Disease Resistance 1 (EDR1) protein and recruits it to early endosomes. Plant Physiology 115: 1827-1838.
Awards and Honors
Rose Hill Innovator (2025)
Presidential Medalist in Cell Biology 2023 (Society of Experimental Biology, "Scientists with Impact" interview)
Rising Stars in Plant Sciences 2022 (Molecular Plant/Cell Press)
Hellman Fellow (2021)
Appointments
Reviewing Editor - The Plant Cell (since 2021)
American Society of Plant Biologists Program Committee (since 2025)
Teaching
PLANTBI-135 Physiology and Biochemistry of Plants
PLANTBI-150 Plant Cell Biology
PLANTBI-200D Plant Cell Biology
UGIS-192 Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies
