The second Yunshui Scholarship winner Dr. ZHU Junji gave a lecture at IHB on September 26, 2021. (Credit: IHB)

The second Yunshui Scholarship winner Dr. ZHU Junji gave a lecture with the title of “The functions and mechanisms of arginine methylation in fish gonad development and antiviral innate immunity”at the Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on September 26, 2021. His lecture was livestreamed via Tencent Meeting.    

Dr. Zhu first shared his study experiences at IHB. He quickly acquired the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing method in zebrafish when he joined Prof. XIAO Wuhan’s lab. By screening, he found that loss of prmt5 (arginine methyltransferase 5) in zebrafish would result in the all-male-like and infertile phenotype.    

Dr. Zhu further revealed a novel mechanism that zebrafish prmt5 controls zebrafish gonad development by arginine methylation of Vasa and Zili which are two important proteins for the gonad development.    

Furthermore, in response to the urgent national requirement of developing new disease-resistant varieties, Dr. Zhu utilized zebrafish and mouse model and finally identified a negative regulator-prmt7 (arginine methyltransferase 7) which controls MAVS-mediated antiviral innate immunity.    

During his five years study at IHB，Dr. Zhu has published several first authors papers in journal like Molecular Cell, Development, Journal of immunology, Faseb Journal and Star protocols. In the end of his lecture, Dr. Zhu concluded his experiences into five words - goal, effort, method, fortune and mentality.   

The one million Yunshui Scholarship, donated by WANG Wenzhao, was established in 2020, in recognition of students who graduate with honors.  The first Yunshui Scholarship winner was ZHANG Dong.