Zhihua Jiang

COMPARATIVE GENOME BIOLOGY.  Phenomes, including economically important traits in livestock species and health/disease phenotypes in model organisms are complex, dynamic and elusive in nature. No doubt, understanding the genetic “bridges” between an organism’s genome and phenome remains challenging even in the post-genome sequencing era. In veterbrates, up to 75% of genes use alternative promoters, isoforms or polyadenylation sites, contributing greatly to transcriptome flexibility, diversity and dynamics. Therefore, our current research focuses on how an alternative transcriptome drives information flows from genome to phenome. Understanding the genome-phenome relationship via alternative transcriptome will provide a foundation to maximize genome potentials benefiting the current generation, while designing de novo genomes for future generations, thus solving unmet needs in food security, environmental challenges and human health.

Specific Research Areas

• Bulk and single cell analyses of alternative transcriptomes.
• Genome-to-phenome bridge mapping of complex phenotypes.
• Functional annotation of animal genomes.

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. Zinski AL, Carrion S, Michal JJ, Gartstein MA, Quock RM, Davis JF, Jiang Z. Genome-to-phenome research in rats: progress and perspectives. Int J Biol Sci. 2021;17(1):119-133.
2. Han XL, Xue SL, Zinski AL, Carrion S, Michal JJ, Jiang Z. Alternative transcriptome analysis to build the genome-phenome bridges in animals. Advances in Animal Genomics. 2021;p.49-59. DOI: 1016/B978-0-12-820595-2.00004-7.
3. Wang W, Fu M, Zhang Q, Zhen Y, Liu J, Xiang S, Michal JJ, Jiang Z, Zhou X, Liu B. A novel quantitative real-time PCR method for the detection of mammalian and poultry species based on a shared single-copy nuclear DNA sequence. Food Chem. 2021;341(Pt 2):128170.
4. Son JS, Chae SA, Wang H, Chen Y, Bravo Iniguez A, de Avila JM, Jiang Z, Zhu MJ, Du M. Maternal inactivity programs skeletal muscle dysfunction in offspring mice by attenuating apelin signaling and mitochondrial biogenesis. Cell Rep. 2020;33(9):108461.
5. Gu H, Zhu T, Li X, Chen Y, Wang L, Lv X, Yang W, Jia Y, Jiang Z, Qu L. A joint analysis strategy reveals genetic changes associated with artificial selection between egg-type and meat-type ducks. Anim Genet. 2020;51(6):890-898.
6. Son JS, Zhao L, Chen Y, Chen K, Chae SA, de Avila JM, Wang H, Zhu MJ, Jiang Z, Du M. Maternal exercise via exerkine apelin enhances brown adipogenesis and prevents metabolic dysfunction in offspring mice. Sci Adv. 2020;6(16):eaaz0359.
7. He S, Zhang Z, Sun Y, Ren T, Li W, Zhou X, Michal JJ, Jiang Z, Liu M. Genome-wide association study shows that microtia in Altay sheep is caused by a 76 bp duplication of HMX1. Anim Genet. 2020;51(1):132-136.