About

Wenting Song is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on macroeconomics and financial economics. She is involved in teaching and mentoring students within the department, and her office is located in the Social Science and Humanities Building at UC Davis. Her professional contact information includes a phone number and email address, and she holds office hours during the spring of 2026 on Tuesdays from 3 to 5 pm.

Research topics

• Biology
• Immunology
• Biochemistry
• Botany
• Pathology
• Medicine
• Cell biology
• Agronomy

Selected publications

• Polyploidy and plant resilience to environmental stresses: Molecular mechanisms and future applications

  Plant Communications · 2026-01-30 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Polyploidy, the condition of possessing more than two sets of chromosomes, is prevalent across the tree of life, particularly in green plants (Viridiplantae). It plays a crucial role in plant evolution, speciation, and adaptation. This review explores the intricate relationship between polyploidy and plant interactions with environmental stresses, focusing on recent studies demonstrating that polyploid plants often exhibit enhanced stress tolerance compared with related diploids, including various biochemical and physiological responses. We also review the role of epigenetic modifications in stress responses in diploids versus polyploids. The genetic redundancy conferred by polyploidy often results in the upregulation of stress-responsive genes and pathways, as well as neofunctionalization. Additionally, we highlight multi-omics approaches that compare polyploids with their diploid progenitors, emphasizing the complex interactions between ploidy and stress responses. These recent results collectively enhance our understanding of how polyploid plants, including crops, rewire metabolic pathways and protein networks, thereby optimizing their survival in challenging environments. This improved knowledge of polyploids and their stress responses is essential for understanding the success of polyploid plants in nature and for guiding future practical research applications. Harnessing polyploid traits through breeding programs could enhance crop resilience and promote sustainable agriculture. We also propose key areas for further investigation, highlighting the potential of traits in polyploid plants for mitigating the impacts of changing climatic conditions on global food security.

  PublisherDOI

• Systems Biology Applications in Revealing Plant Defense Mechanisms in Disease Triangle

  International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2025-07-29 · 5 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Plant diseases resulting from pathogens and pests constitute a persistent threat to global food security. Pathogenic infections of plants are influenced by environmental factors; a concept encapsulated in the "disease triangle" model. It is important to elucidate the complex molecular mechanisms underlying the interactions among plants, their pathogens and various environmental factors in the disease triangle. This review aims to highlight recent advancements in the application of systems biology to enhance understanding of the plant disease triangle within the context of microbiome rising to become the 4th dimension. Recent progress in microbiome research utilizing model plant species has begun to illuminate the roles of specific microorganisms and the mechanisms of plant-microbial interactions. We will examine (1) microbiome-mediated functions related to plant growth and protection, (2) advancements in systems biology, (3) current -omics methodologies and new approaches, and (4) challenges and future perspectives regarding the exploitation of plant defense mechanisms via microbiomes. It is posited that systems biology approaches such as single-cell RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry-based multi-omics can decode plant defense mechanisms. Progress in this significant area of plant biology has the potential to inform rational crop engineering and breeding strategies aimed at enhancing disease resistance without compromising other pathways that affect crop yield.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Over-expression of XA21 binding protein 3 enhances rice survival under water-deficit stress

  Plant Science · 2025-02-28 · 1 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Jasmonic acid and abscisic acid compromise XA21-mediated immunity in rice to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae

  European Journal of Plant Pathology · 2025-07-10 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Machine learning methods to predict transvalvular gradient waveform post–transcatheter aortic valve replacement using preprocedural echocardiogram

  Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery · 2025-05-02 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The immune receptor XA21 causes semi-male sterility and grain loss in rice

  Frontiers in Plant Science · 2025-11-10 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  As part of an armory against pathogens, plants carry resistance ( R ) genes despite the fitness costs they can incur. While these detrimental effects have been associated with the presence and interactions of numerous R genes in various plant species, molecular models do not exist for the mechanisms underlying R gene-mediated fitness costs. The rice R gene Xa21 , encoding a cell-surface immune receptor, specifies robust resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae . Here, we demonstrate that Xa21 expression causes drastic fertility defects, including reduced pollen viability, impaired anther dehiscence, and severe grain loss, at a low temperature (24°C) and in a dose-dependent manner. Under such growth conditions, Xa21 plants displayed abundant accumulation of reactive oxygen species in their anthers and decreased expression of genes related to jasmonate biosynthesis, signaling, and response in their spikelets during anthesis. Consequently, jasmonate contents in XA21 spikelets were lower than those in the control. The exogenous application of methyl jasmonate largely rescued the anther dehiscence of Xa21 plants. Given the key roles of lipid-derived jasmonates in stamen development and maturation in plants, our findings link R gene expression, jasmonic acid (JA) signaling, and fertility defects; identify temperature as an environmental factor influencing the range of R gene functions; and explain the abundant accumulation of 17 transposable-like elements previously observed in the Xa21 locus.

  PublisherDOI

• Rhomboid-mediated cleavage of the immune receptor XA21 protects grain set and male fertility in rice

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-05-30 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  To maintain growth and to successfully reproduce, organisms must protect key functions in specific tissues, particularly when countering pathogen invasion using internal defensive proteins that may disrupt their own developmental processes. The rice immune receptor XA21 confers race-specific resistance against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae , which causes the deadly disease bacterial leaf blight. Here, we demonstrate that XA21 is cleaved by the rhomboid-like protease OsRBL3b, likely within its transmembrane domain. OsRBL3b mRNA transcripts are preferentially expressed in rice spikelets. Rice plants expressing Xa21 but lacking a functional OsRBL3b displayed impaired anther dehiscence and pollen viability, resulting in male sterility and yield reduction with high levels of XA21 protein present in spikelets during anthesis. In leaves, osrbl3b mutants expressing XA21 had normal levels of this resistance protein and disease immunity. This balance between reproduction and disease resistance through the specific expression of a rhomboid protease may be key to limiting the detrimental effects of an active immune response and may be useful in future for genetic improvement of crops.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Simplified Protocol to Demonstrate Gene Expression in <em>Nicotiana benthamiana</em> Using an <em>Agrobacterium</em>-Mediated Transient Assay

  BIO-PROTOCOL · 2024-01-01 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The photo demonstrates the method of agroinfiltration into the abaxial side of leaves using a needleless syringe.

  PublisherDOI

• [Research advances on improving the therapeutic efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes in wound repair].

  PubMed · 2023 · 1 citations

  • Medicine
  • Immunology
  • Biology

  How to promote high-quality wound healing is a common problem for plastic surgery and burn physicians. In recent years, numerous animal studies have demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes promote wound repair through multiple mechanisms and are promising cell-free therapeutic agents with broad prospect of application. How to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of exosomes, optimize their drug delivery strategy, and improve their biological properties are the challenges to be overcome in order to move from basic research to clinical application of exosome therapy for wound repair. This article focuses on methods to improve the wound repair potential of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes, and reviews the recent research advances on improving the therapeutic efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes in wound repair from three aspects, including pretreatment of parental mesenchymal stem cells, hydrogel bio-scaffold loaded with exosomes, and engineered exosomes, to provide a reference for further clinical studies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Drought treatment: A new tool for dissecting XA21 signaling in rice

  Journal of Experimental and Molecular Pathology · 2023-05-09 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Xiuhua Chen

  10 shared

• Guozhen Liu

  Nanjing Tech University

  10 shared

• Pamela C. Ronald

  University of California, Berkeley

  9 shared

• Jude W. Grosser

  Florida Department of Citrus

  8 shared

• Liya Pi

  Tulane University

  8 shared

• Sixue Chen

  University of Mississippi

  7 shared

• Ahmad A. Omar

  University of Florida

  6 shared

• Li Zhu

  University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

  5 shared