Zhihua Jiang

Animal Phenomics.  Phenomics is defined as an independent discipline to study a full set of phenotypes as phenome during the life span of an organism, thus providing a basis to fully characterize the genome. As such, my research focuses on development of the central dogma of phenomics and creation of the genomically optimized livestock farming (GOLF) systems with goals to promote healthy products from healthy animals for healthy people under healthy environment. Specifically, we will find answers to this biological question: how dynamic and diverse phenomes are orchestrated by the same genome during an animal’s life span. Our basic approach is to use RNA variants to bridge the genome and phenome. RNA molecules are either protein coding or non-coding, so they can produce either “hardware” or serve as “software” with diverse functions to achieve the goal-driven phenotypes. Our Animal Phenomics research will provide a solid foundation to design genomes for desirable and superior phenomes, thus sustaining future animal production and food security locally and globally.

Specific Research Areas

• Bulk and single cell profiling of RNA variants.
• RNA bridged maps of complex phenotypes.
• Pan-transcritpome assemblies and functional annotation of animal genomes.
• Development of the central dogma of phenomics.

Currently recruiting graduate students for the Genome-to-Phenome PhD Program.

Most Recent Publications

For a complete list of publications, please visit https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zhihua_Jiang4/

1. de Jong TV, Pan Y, Rastas P, Munro D, Tutaj M, Akil H, Benner C, Chitre AS, Chow W, Colonna V, Dalgard CL, Demos WM, Doris PA, Garrison E, Geurts A, Gunturkun, HM, Guryev V, Hourlier T, Howe K, Huang J, Kalbfleisch T, Kim P, Li L, Mahaffey S, Martin FJ, Mohammadi P, Ozel AB, Polesskaya O, Pravence M, Prins P, Sebat J, Smith JR, Solberg Woods LC, Tabakoff B, Tracey A, Uliano-Silva M, Villani F, Wang H, Sharp BM, Telese F, Jiang Z, Saba L, Wang X, Murphy TD, Palmer AA, Kwiteck AE, Dwinell MR, Williams RW, Li JZ, Chen H. 2023. A revamped rat reference genome improves the discovery of genetic diversity in laboratory rats. Cell Genomics (in revision).
2. Wheeler EC, Choi P, Howitt JD, Gill S, Watson S, Yu S, Wahl P, Diaz C, Mohr C, Zinski A, Jiang Z, Rossi D, Davis JF. Cannabis Sativa targets mediobasal hypothalamic neurons to stimulate appetite. Scientific Reports 2023 (accepted).
3. Carrion SA, Michal JJ, Jiang Z. 2023. Alternative Transcripts diversify Genome Function for Phenome Relevance to Health and Diseases. Genes. 2023;14(11):2051.
4. Wang W, Zhang Y, Zhang X, Li C, Yuan L, Zhang D, Zhao Y, Li X, Cheng J, Lin C, Zhao L, Wang J, Xu D, Yue X, Li W, Wen X, Jiang Z, Ding X, Salekdeh GH, Li F. Heritability and recursive influence of host genetics on the rumen microbiota drive body weight variance in male Hu sheep lambs. Microbiome. 2023;11(1):197.
5. Carrion SA, Michal JJ, Jiang Z. Imprinted genes, genomics conservation, transcriptomic dynamics and phenomic significance in health and diseases. Int J Biol Sci. 2023;19(10):3128-3142.
6. Stotts MJ, Zhang YZ, Zhang SW, Michal JJ, Velez JS, Hans B, Maquivar M, Jiang Z. 2023. Alternative polyadenylation events in epithelial cells sense endometritis progression in dairy cows. J. Integr. Agric. 2023;22(6):1820–1832.
7. Mikec Š, Horvat S, Wang H, Michal J, Kunej T, Jiang Z. Differential alternative polyadenylation response to high-fat diet between polygenic obese and healthy lean mice. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2023;666:83-91.
8. Wu XL, Ding X, Zhao Y, Miles AM, Brito LF, Heringstad B, Zhao S, Jiang Z. Editorial: Lactation genomics and phenomics in farm animals: Where are we at? Front Genet. 2023;14:1173595.
9. Wen J, Li H, Wang H, Yu J, Zhu T, Zhang J, Li X, Jiang Z, Ning Z, Qu L. Origins, timing and introgression of domestic geese revealed by whole genome data. J Anim Sci Biotechnol. 2023;14:26.