Bitao Qiu

The paper identifies a Hymenoptera-specific gene, torch, that controls caste-specific organ size by co-opting conserved Hippo signaling machinery across species.

This study identifies lncRNAs as key regulators of caste differentiation in ants through transcriptomic analysis and functional validation.

This study reconstructs the evolutionary history of termite social systems using comparative transcriptomics, revealing that linear caste development is ancestral and bifurcated caste development evolved multiple times through gene regulatory network co-option.