About SBU

Zhang, Xiao-Ning

Name:
Dr. Xiao-Ning Zhang
Xiao-Ning Zhang, Ph.D.

Academic School:
School of Arts and Sciences

Academic Department:
Biology

Titles/Responsibilities:
  • Assistant Professor, Biology
  • Director of the Biochemistry Program

Contact Information:
Office phone: (716) 375-2485
E-mail: xzhang@sbu.edu 

Office Location/Hours:
Walsh Science Center 216
4-5 p.m. MWF

Courses Taught:

Academic Degrees:
  • Ph.D., Fudan University, China
  • M.S. & B.S., Nanjing University, China

Other Education:
  • M.A. in Applied Healing Arts, Tai Sophia Institute

Accomplishments:
  • Mahmuda Khan, Garima Agrawa, Jennifer Andrews, Grace Lewis, Michelle Mills, Cecilia Mo, Xiao-Ning Zhang. Functional exon-exon junction complex is essential for the success of male gametophyte development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Gorden Research Conference – Plant Molecular Biology 2012. Poster#118. Holderness, NH, July 15-20, 2012.
  • Andreas Thor, Philip Anderson, Louiqa Raschid, Saket Navlakha, Barna Saha, Samir Khuller, Xiao-Ning Zhang. Link prediction for annotation graphs using graph summarization. Proceedings of the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2011). Also appears in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Volume 7031/2011, 714-729, 2011. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-25073-6_45.
  • Sinead Coleman, Jason Chien, Xiao-Ning Zhang. An investigation of phosphorylation of a splicing factor, SR45, in Arabidopsis thaliana. Rochester Academy of Science 38th Annual Paper Session. Poster. Rochester, NY. Oct. 29, 2011.
  • David Samuel, Kun-Yong Choi, Kevin Cilano, Sinead Coleman, Usman Jilani, Amanda Johnson, Subodika Katukurunde, Mahmuda Khan, James Lee, Jill McAndrew, Christina Messner, David Pesci, Theiju Sebastian, Jarred Smithers, Shiyu Wang, Xiao-Ning Zhang. Characterization of the Arabidopsis sr45-1;oif-ler mutant in BIOL406: Plant Development and Physiology Laboratory. Plant Biology Meeting 2011. Poster #05011. Minneapolis, MN. August 6-10.
  • Kevin Cilano & X.-N. Zhang. Identification and characterization of hap1-2 mutant that lacks the functional MAGO NASHI ortholog in Arabidopsis. RNA 2011. Poster #693. Kyoto, Japan. June 14-18.
  • Xiao-Ning Zhang, Kevin Cilano, Stephen Mount & Jill Remick. OPEN IMMATURE FLOWER (OIF), a genetic enhancer of SR45, is involved in the regulation of flower development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Rochester Academy of Science 37th Annual Paper Session. Talk. Rochester, NY. November 6, 2010.
  • Kevin Cilano & Xiao-Ning Zhang. Characterization of open-immature-flower phenotype in Arabidopsis thaliana by scanning electron microscopy. Rochester Academy of Science 37th Annual Paper Session. Poster #48. Rochester, NY. November 6, 2010.
  • Stephen Mount, Amishav Bresler, Kevin Cilano, Dionne Rebello & Xiao-Ning Zhang. The open immature flower phenotype in hybrids between the Landsberg erecta and Columbia strains of Arabidopsis thaliana. Mid-Atlantic Plant Molecular Biology Society Conference 2010. Talk. Laurel, MD. August 12-13, 2010.
  • Barna Saha, Allison Hoch, Samir Khuller, Louiqa Raschid & Xiao-Ning Zhang. Dense subgraphs with restrictions and applications to gene annotation graphs. Research in Computational Molecular Biology. Vol.6044/2010: 456-472. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-12683-3_30.
  • Jason Chien, Kevin Cilano, Stephen M. Mount & Xiao-Ning Zhang. Is the functional difference between two alternatively spliced SR45 isoforms in Arabidopsis preserved in two rice SR45 orthologs during evolution? RNA 2010. Poster #603. June 22-27, 2010.
  • Xiao-Ning Zhang & Stephen M. Mount. Two alternatively spliced isoforms of the Arabidopsis thaliana SR45 protein have distinct roles during normal plant development. Plant Physiology. 2009, 150 (3): 1450-1458.
  • Xiao-Ning Zhang & Stephen M Mount. SR45, a splicing factor, is required for normal pollen development. Frontiers in Sexual Plant Reproduction III. Poster P1-28. October 17-19, 2008.
  • Xiao-Ning Zhang (corresponding author), Yingjie Wu, John W. Tobias, Brian P. Brunk, Gerald F. Deitzer & Dongmei Liu. HFR1 is crucial for transcriptome regulation in the cryptochrome 1-mediated early response to blue light in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS ONE. 2008, 3(10): e3563. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003563.
  • Xiao-Ning Zhang, Zhi-Cai Qu, You-Zhong Wan, Hong-Wei Zhang & Da-Leng Shen. Application of suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) to cloning differentially expressed cDNA in Dunaliella salina (Chorophyta) under hyperosmotic shock. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter. 20(1): 49-57. 2002.

Teaching Philosophy:
  1. Creating an interactive teaching environment for active learning.
  2. Helping students to connect textbook knowledge with real world issues.
  3. Bringing real research projects to the classroom and lab.
  4. Introducing the science community to students and letting them explore.

Current Research Interests/Projects:

My long-term interest is to understand how plants interact with the environment, including biotic and abiotic stresses, particularly abiotic stresses. One step toward this understanding is to answer the question, how do plants adjust growth and development by regulating pre-mRNA splicing in response to environmental signals? So far, I have found evidence that the plant splicing factor SR45 is involved in plant growth and development and responds to cold/heat stress and sugar supplies. I am planning to extend this work with the following three goals:

  1. Look for the partners involved in SR45 functions.
  2. Understand the role for other splicing factors in the interplay between the response to environmental signals and plant growth and development.
  3. Understand the evolutionary significance for the splicing network among species.

The following projects are currently supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF): 

 

  • RUI: Cloning and Characterization of OPENED IMMATURE FLOWER.
  • Collaborative: ABI Development: Methodology for Pattern Creation, Imprint Validation, and Discovery from the Annotated Biological Web.