PhD Advisor: Professor Ikram Blilou

Abstract:
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a perennial woody monocot widely cultivated worldwide, particularly in arid regions, where it plays a pivotal ecological and agro-economic role. However, the supply of elite planting materials remains insufficient due to the species’ low regeneration capacity. In addition, the genetic improvement of desirable traits through engineering approaches is hindered by the lack of reliable transformation systems. Despite the availability of genomes of multiple date palm cultivars, molecular and genetic tools to conduct functional studies in date palm are still lacking. This thesis aims to establish an optimized regeneration and stable genetic transformation platform for date palm, identify key regulators that enhance regenerative competence and genetic engineering effeciency, and generate a foundational single-cell transcriptomic resource to support future studies of root development and stress resilience at cellular resolution.

Bio:
Yasha Zhang is a PhD candidate in Plant Science at KAUST. Her research focuses on improving regeneration and genetic transformation systems in date palm, integrating multi-omics approaches to uncover mechanisms underlying cellular reprogramming and regeneration. She has developed an optimized somatic embryogenesis–based regeneration pipeline and contributed to establishing efficient transformation strategies. She also generated a single-cell transcriptomic atlas of date palm roots.