Introduction

　　Zhiqiang Wu, Principle Investigator, Doctoral Advisor,[m1]  “Outstanding Young Talent” of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS). He is mainly engaged in the research of the complex organelle genome evolution and its interaction with their own nuclear genome in different kinds of plant species. He has published more than 20 SCI papers (as the first author or corresponding author) including Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Heredity, etc.

　　Working Experience

　　2019.11–Present           Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen-CAAS           Principle Investigator                                                                       

　　2018.1-2019.12            Colorado State University                                                     Postdoctoral Fellow                                     

　　2016.5-2017.12            Iowa State University                                                            Postdoctoral Fellow                                   

　　2014.5-2016.4              Colorado State University                                                     Postdoctoral Fellow                                   

　　2013.2-2014.4              Texas Tech University                                                           Postdoctoral Fellow                                   

　　2012.2-2013.2              Umeå universitet                                                                    Doctoral Fellow   

　　Education Experience

　　2006.9–2012.1                        IBCAS                                       Ph.D.          

　　2002.9–2006.7                        Yunnan University                     Bachelor   

　　Research Interest

　　Our lab comprehensively employs the evolutionary biology, comparative genomics and functional genomics research to investigate the genome variation mechanism of both plant organelles (chloroplast and mitochondria) and their own nucleus genome, as well as the cytonuclear interaction and organelle mutation. Meanwhile, we also focus on plant genome sequencing and evolutionary variation across the multiple species’ families.

        Major Achievements

　　1. The evolution pattern of intraspecific variation in complex plant mitochondrial genome

　　It is important and meaningful to investigate the origin and evolution of mitochondria, which regarded as the energy factory of cells. We reported that angiosperm species could contain the complex mitochondrial genome structure than certain bacterial genome. Moreover, the expression of mitochondrial genomes at the RNA transcription level and the distribution of gene editing were also diversified. Meanwhile, the copy number changes of mitochondrial genome were systematically studied. The series results had been published in PNAS, BMC Genomics, Heredity and G3: Genes, Genomes and Genetics, etc. In all, the research of complex organelle genomes from various plants will help us to understand the evolution patterns of plant species, and We will continue to research on this topic from the representatives of different clade plants.

　　2. The mechanism of mitochondrial gene transfer and gene transition were systematically identified and analyzed in plant

　　During the evolution, genome of organelle and their nucleus has undergone the genome structure remodeling and functional gene transfer or loss. But there few effective experimental evidences to verify the hypothesis about how organelle gene functional transfer to nucleus. Here, the rpl5 gene in mitochondria was investigated in 90 species and their outgroup species in grass family, the copy and transfer mechanism within organelle and nucleus have been elucidated. The research results were published in Molecular Biology and Evolution and further study of gene transfer between organelle and nucleus will be conducted to interpret the mechanism of diversity and complexity of gene transfer from the perspective of life tree.

　　3. Study on cytonuclear interaction

　　As we know, the evolutionary imbalance between the parthenogenetic organelle genome and the biparental inherited nuclear genome had been produced in speciation of polyploids. Therefore, the data from genomics and transcriptome levels will make it possible to analyze the mechanism variation during the formation of polyploids with different evolutionary time scales. It could help us to understand the mechanism of speciation and to generate the new species in crop.

　　Selected Publication

　　1. Zhiqiang Wu, Jocelyn M. Cuthbert, Douglas R. Taylor, Daniel B. Sloan. The massive mitochondrial genome of the angiosperm Silene noctiflora is evolving by gain or loss of entire chromosomes, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 2015, 112(33): 10185－10191.

　　2. Zhiqiang Wu, Daniel B Sloan, Colin W Brown, Mónica Rosenblueth, Jeffrey D Palmer, Han Chuan Ong. Mitochondrial retroprocessing promoted functional transfers of rpl5 to the nucleus in grasses, Molecular Biology and Evolution. 2017, 34(9): 2340－2354.

　　3. Zhiqiang Wu and Song Ge. The phylogeny of the BEP clade in grasses revisited: Evidence from the whole-genome sequences of chloroplasts, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 2012, 62: 573－578.

　　4. Zhiqiang Wu, James D. Stone, Helena Štorchová, Daniel B. Sloan. High transcript abundance, RNA editing, and small RNAs in intergenic regions within the massive mitochondrial genome of the angiosperm Silene noctiflora, BMC genomics. 2015, 16(1): 938.

　　5. Zhiqiang Wu and Daniel B. Sloan. Recombination and intraspecific polymorphism for the presence and absence of entire chromosomes in mitochondrial genomes, Heredity. 2019, 122 (5): 647–659.

　　6. Zhiqiang Wu, Gus Waneka, Daniel B. Sloan. The tempo and mode of angiosperm mitochondrial genome divergence inferred from intraspecific variation in Arabidopsis thaliana. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics. (2020, Online)

　　7. Gang Zheng, Lingling Wei, Li Ma, Zhiqiang Wu, Cuihua Gu, Kai Chen. Comparative analyses of chloroplast genomes from 13 Lagerstroemia (Lythraceae) species: identification of highly divergent regions and inference of phylogenetic relationships. (2020, accept by Plant Molecular Biology) （并列第一作）

　　8. Cuihua Gu, Luke Tembrock, Shaoyu Zheng, Zhiqiang Wu*. The complete chloroplast genome of Catha edulis: A comparative analysis of genome features with related species, International journal of molecular sciences. 2018, 19(2): 525. （通讯作者）

　　9. Cuihua Gu, Bin Dong, Liang Xu, Luke R. Tembrock, Shaoyu Zheng, Zhiqiang Wu*. The Complete Chloroplast Genome of Heimia myrtifolia and Comparative Analysis within Myrtales. Molecules. 2018, 23(4): 846. （通讯作者）

　　10. Zhiqiang Wu, Cuihua Gu, Luke R Tembrock, Dong Zhang, Song Ge. Characterization of the whole chloroplast genome of Chikusichloa mutica and its comparison with other rice tribe (Oryzeae) species. Plos One. 2017, 12(5).

　　11. Zhiqiang Wu, Luke R Tembrock, Song Ge. Are differences in genomic data sets due to true biological variants or errors in genome assembly: an example from two chloroplast genomes. PloS one. 2015, 10(2): e0118019.

　　12. Li Wang, Zhiqiang Wu, Nadia Bystriakova, Stephen W Ansell, Qiao-Ping Xiang, Jochen Heinrichs, Harald Schneider, Xian-Chun Zhang. Phylogeography of the Sino-Himalayan fern Lepisorus clathratus on “the roof of the world”. PloS one. 2011, 6(7): e25896. （并列第一作）