After being awarded for the first prize of Yunnan Natural Science in 2007, the team led by the professor Gong Xun has made new progress in research on conservation genetics of endangered plants. The method of SNPs was used in the study of genetic diversity and genetic differentiation of Cycas debaoensis which is distributed on earth piled hills and rock hills, and the result showed obvious genetic differentiation and has been published in online "Conservation Genetics".

The study on Citrus hongheensis revealed that populations distributed surround villages were original remnants, rather than cultivated ones. The local Kazakh people did not cause damages when using C. hongheensis, but indirectly protected it. The research results have been published in "Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution".

Nouelia insignis, a peculiar monotypic plant distributed at Jinsha River and Nanpan River basins was found low genetic diversity and no significant genetic differentiation. The differentiation time between two genetic lineages is 3.224MYA, there had been population expansion after the glacial period, and the research results have been published in "Journal of Plant Research".

Cycas debaoensis (image by KIB)　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Cycas debaoensis (image by KIB)

Map showing locations of the sampled populations of C. debaoensis and the distribution of cpDNA haplotype in the species. (image by KIB)

Maximum likelihood (ML) tree of cpDNA haplotypes of Nouelia insignis. (image by KIB)