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Research interests (研究方向）
Plant morphologies and molecular evolution (植物形態與分子演化）
Plant phylogenetics (植物系統親緣）
Organelle comparative genomics (胞器比較基因體學）
We study plants, particularly those that are unusual. We are particularly interested in parasitic plants, which are fascinating organisms that require nutrition and water from host plants. Unlike typical plants, they are partially or entirely incapable of photosynthesis, which makes them dependent on their hosts for survival. Some notable examples include mistletoe, which attaches to trees and extracts nutrients through specialized structures called haustoria. These plants play crucial ecological roles, from affecting host populations to influencing the structure of plant communities. Despite their parasitic nature, they contribute to biodiversity and are of interest in evolution.
Balanophora laxiflora
Taxillus liquidambaricola
Thesium chinensis
Cassytha filiformis
Huei-Jiun Su (蘇慧君)
Associate professor, University of Taipei
Contact: hjsu@utaipei.edu.tw
Phone: +886-2-23113040 #3908
Address: S409, University of Taipei, 1, Ai-Guo West Rd., Taipei, 100234, Taiwan.
臺北市立大學 科學館 S409 研究室
Publications (學術著作）
Yi-Hsiu Kuan, Zong-Yu Shen, Pin Yi Li Wei-Yun Chen, Huei-Jiun Su#, and Jen-Pan Huang# (2026). Selective yet opportunistic assemblies of symbionts in a lichen community, Cladia asiatica, in Taiwan. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 147(4): blag019.
P. Svetlikova, H.-J. Su, K. Suetsugu and F. Husnik (2026). Phylogenomics clarifies Balanophora evolution, metabolic retention in reduced plastids, and the origins of obligate agamospermy. New Phytologist. (249)5:2531-1446.
R. Yu, X. Zhi, L. F. Ceriotti, E. Skippington, D. W. Rice, H.-J. Su, T. J. Barkman, C. Sun, Y. Liu, D. Fang, X. Chen, C. W. dePamphilis, J. P. Mower, M. V. Sanchez-Puerta , J. D. Palmer and R. Zhou (2025). A record-setting mitogenome in the holoparasitic plant Balanophora yakushimensis accompanied by exceptional loss of organellar DNA repair and recombination genes. BMC Biology. 23:344
Padgett T, Su H.-J, Wu S.-H, Huang L.-Y., Yiching Lin (2025). Quantitative approach for determining reproductive life history strategies of parasitic plants: a case study in Balanophora. Ecology and Evolution 15 (1):e70746.
Edlund M, Anderson BM, Su H.-J, Robison T, Caraballo-Ortiz MA, Der J, Nickrent DL, Petersen G (2024). Plastome evolution in
Santalales involves relaxed selection prior to loss of ndh genes and major boundary shifts of the inverted repeat. Annals of Botany, mcae145.
Kuo L.-Y., Su H.-J, Koubínová D, Xie P.-J., Whitehouse C, Ebihara A, Grant J. (2023). Organellar phylogenomics of Ophioglossaceae fern genera. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14.
Su H.-J*#., S.-L. Liang and D. L. Nickrent (2021) Plastome variation and phylogeny of Taxillus (Loranthaceae). Plos One 16(8): e0256345.
Nickrent DL, H.-J. Su, R.-Z. Lin, MP Devkota, J.-M. Hu and G. Glatzel (2021) Examining the needle in the haystack: Evolutionary relationships in the mistletoe genus Loranthus (Loranthaceae). Systematic Botany 46 (2): 403-415.
Su H.-J.*, Barkman T. J., Hao W., Jones S. S., Naumann, Skippington J., Wafula, E. Hu J.-M., Palmer J. D. and dePamphilis C. W. (2019) Novel genetic code and record-setting AT-richness in the highly reduced plastid genome of the holoparasitic plant Balanophora. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 116 (3): 934-943. (Recommended article by Faculty of 1000)
L.-Y. Kuo, Tang, T.-Y., Li, F.-W., H.-J. Su., W.-L. Chiou, Y.-M. Huang and C.-N. Wang (2018) Organelle genome inheritance in Deparia ferns (Athyriaceae, Aspleniineae, Polypodiales). Frontiers in Plant Sciences, 9:486.
H.-J. Su*, and Hu, J.-M., (2016). The complete chloroplast genome of hemiparasitic flowering plant Schoepfia jasminodora. Mitochondrial DNA Part B, 1: 767-769.
H.-J. Su*, J.-M. Hu, F. E. Anderson and D. L. Nickrent (2015) Phylogenetic relationships of Santalales with insights into the origins of holoparasitic Balanophoraceae. Taxon 64(3): 491-506.
H.-J. Su*, SA Hogenhout, AM Al-Sadi, C-H Kuo (2014) Complete chloroplast genome sequence of Omani Lime (Citrus aurantiifolia) and comparative analysis within the Rosids. Plos One 9(11): e113049.
H.-J. Su* and J.-M. Hu (2012) Rate heterogeneity in six protein-coding genes from the holoparasite Balanophora (Balanophoraceae) and other Santalales taxa. Annals of Botany 110 (6): 1137-1147.
H.-J. Su*, J. Murata, and J.-M. Hu (2012) Morphology and phylogenetics of two holoparasitic plants, Balanophora japonica and Balanophora yakushimensis (Balanophoraceae), and their hosts in Taiwan and Japan. Journal of Plant Research 125: 317-326.
Wu, H.-C., H.-J. Su, and J.-M. Hu (2007) The identification of A-, B-, C-, and E-class MADS-box genes and implications for perianth evolution in the basal eudicot Trochodendron aralioides (Trochodendraceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences 168: 775-799.
Kramer, E. M., H.-J. Su, C.-C. Wu, and J.-M. Hu (2006) A simplified explanation for the frameshift mutation that created a novel C-terminal motif in the APETALA3 gene lineage. BMC Evolutionary Biology 6: 30. (Recommended article by Faculty of 1000)
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