Received her Ph. D. from the Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2015. She has been acting as principal investigator for six national or provincial ordinary projects at KIB. She focuses on phylogeny, species diversity, and the evolution of higher fungi.
She has published over 20 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals mainly about the phylogeny, species diversity, and biogeography of amanitas. The major findings are as follows: 1) Amanitaceae is a monophyletic group and comprises five genus-level lineages; 2) Amanita, the largest genus of the family, is divided into three subgenera and 11 sections; 3) One new genus and more than 60 novel species have been described; 4) lethal amanitas most likely have a Palaeotropical origin dating back to Paleocene, and the intercontinental disjunctions among Eurasia and Americas, or East Asia and Americas, were established during the middle Oligocene to Miocene via the BLB, followed by allopatric speciation caused by vicariance.
Publications (# co-first author, * corresponding authors):
1. Cui YY, Yang ZL, Cai Q*. 2022. Amanita pallidoverruca, a new species of Amanita section Validae from the Hengduan Mountains, southwestern China. Phytotaxa 542: 73–82
2. Su YT#, Cai Q#, Qin WQ, Cui YY, Chen ZH*, Yang ZL*. 2022. Two new species of Amanita section Amanita from Central China. Mycological Progress 21: 78.
3. Cui YY, Cai Q, Li J, Yang ZL*. 2021.Two new Laccaria species from China based on molecular and morphological evidence. Mycological Progress 20: 567–576.
4. Cui YY, Cai Q, Yang ZL*. 2021. Amanita chuformis, a new Amanita species with a marginate basal bulb. Mycoscience 62: 29–35.
5. Li HJ, Chen ZH, Cai Q, Zhou MH, Chen GJ, Sun CY, Zhang HS, Yang ZL*. 2020. Gyromitra venenata, a new poisonous species discovered from China. Mycosystema 39: 1706–1718.
6. Codjia JEI, Cai Q, Zhou SW, Luo H, Ryberg M, Yorou NS, Yang ZL*. 2020. Morphology, multilocus phylogeny, and toxin analysis reveal Amanita albolimbata, the first lethal Amanita species from Benin, West Africa. Frontiers in Microbiology 11: 599047.
7. Cai Q, Lüli YJ, Kost G, Yang ZL*. 2020. Tricholyophyllum brunneum gen. et. sp. nov. with bacilliform basidiospores in the family Lyophyllaceae. Mycosystema 39: 1728–174.
8. Lüli YJ, Cai Q, Chen ZH, Sun H, Zhu XT, Li X, Yang ZL, Luo H*. 2019. Genome of lethal Lepiota venenata and insights into the evolution of toxin-biosynthetic genes. BMC Genomics 20: 198.
9. Yang ZL*, Cai Q, Cui YY. 2018. Phylogeny, diversity and morphological evolution of Amanitaceae. Biosystematics and Ecology Series 34: 359–380.
10. Luo H*, Cai Q, Lüli YJ, Li X, Sinha R, Hallen-Adams HE, Yang ZL. 2018. The MSDIN family in amanitin-producing mushrooms and evolution of the prolyl oligopeptidase genes. IMA Fungus 9: 225–242.
11. Cui YY#, Cai Q#, Tang LP, Liu JW, Yang ZL*. 2018. The family Amanitaceae: molecular phylogeny, higher–rank taxonomy and the species in China. Fungal Diversity 91: 5–230.
12. Cai Q, Chen ZH, He ZM, Luo H, Yang ZL*. 2018. Lepiota venenata, a new species related to toxic mushroom in China. Journal of Fungal Research 16: 63–69.
13. Tang LP, Lee SS, Zeng NK, Cai Q, Zhang P, Yang ZL*. 2017. Notes on Amanita section Caesareae from Malaysia. Mycologia 109: 557–567.
14. Liu JW, Cai Q, Cui YY, Yang ZL*. 2017. Amanita cingulata, a new annulate species of Amanita sect. Vaginatae from subtropical China. Phytotaxa 326: 41–53.
15. Cai Q, Cui YY, Yang ZL*. 2016. Lethal Amanita species in China. Mycologia 108: 993–1009.
16. Tang SS, Zhou Q, He ZM, Luo T, Zhang P, Cai Q, Yang ZL, Chen J, Chen ZH*. 2016. Cyclopeptide toxins of lethal amanitas: Compositions, distribution and phylogenetic implication. Toxicon 120: 78–88.
17. Tang LP, Cai Q, Lee SS, Buyck B, Zhang P, Yang ZL*. 2015. Taxonomy and phylogenetic position of species of Amanita sect. Vaginatae s.l. from tropical Africa. Mycological Progress 14: 39.
18. Tang LP, Hao YJ, Cai Q, Tolgor B, Yang ZL*. 2014. Morphological and molecular evidence for a new species of Rhodotus from tropical and subtropical Yunnan, China. Mycological Progress 13: 45–53.
19. Cai Q, Tulloss RE, Tang LP, Tolgor B, Zhang P, Chen ZH, Yang ZL*. 2014. Multi–locus phylogeny of lethal amanitas: Implications for species diversity and historical biogeography. BMC Evolutionary Biology 14:143.
20. Cai Q, Tang LP, Yang ZL*. 2012. DNA Barcoding of Economically Important Mushrooms: A Case Study on Lethal Amanitas from China. Plant Diversity 34: 614–622
21. Zeng NK, Cai Q, Yang ZL* 2012. Corneroboletus, a new genus to accommodate the Southeast Asian Boletus indecorus. Mycologia 104: 1420–1432.
Books:
1. Yang ZL, Wu G, Li YC, Wang XH, Cai Q. 2021. Common Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of Southwestern China. Science Press, Beijing.