Education
2014.09-2019.01 Ph.D., Molecular Microbiology and Biochemistry, The University of Hong Kong
2010.09-2014.06 B.Sc., Applied Biological Sciences, Zhejiang University
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2021.02- Associate Professor, Integrative Microbiology Research Center, South China Agricultural University
2019.02-2021.01 Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong
Awards & Honors
[1] J. G. Phillips Memorial Scholarship. The University of Hong Kong, HKSAR, China; 2017
[2] Student travel award. 8th Asian Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference, Auckland, New Zealand; 2016
Research Fields
Gene regulation is one of the most ubiquitous processes in biology. Rapid and tight regulation of target gene expression in response to various environmental signals is crucial for bacteria to survive in the changing environments. Our research focuses on the important regulatory systems such as two-component system, quorum sensing system in human and plant pathogens to understand how pathogens adapt to different environmental stresses and control their physiological behaviors associated with virulence and antibiotic resistance. We also attempt to develop novel molecular techniques such as CRISPR-Cas gene editing to facilitate above-mentioned microbiological studies.
Selected Publications
[1] Xu Z, Park TJ and Cao H*. Advances in mining and expressing microbial biosynthetic gene clusters. Critical Reviews in Microbiology, 2022; DOI:10.1080/1040841X.2022.2036099
[2] Zhou T, Huang J, Liu Z, Lin Q, Xu Z* and Zhang L*. The two-component system FleS/FleR represses H1-T6SS via c-di-GMP signaling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2022;88: e01655-21.
[3] Duan C, Cao H, Zhang L* and Xu Z*. Harnessing the CRISPR-Cas systems to combat antimicrobial resistance. Frontiers in Microbiology, 2021;12: 716064.
[4] Zhou T, Huang J, Liu Z, Xu Z* and Zhang L*. Molecular Mechanisms Underlying the Regulation of Biofilm Formation and Swimming Motility by FleS/FleR in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Frontiers in Microbiology, 2021;12: 707711.
[5] Xu Z, Li Y, Cao H, Si M, Zhang G, Woo P, Yan A*. A transferrable and integrative type I-F Cascade for heterologous genome editing and transcription modulation. Nucleic Acids Research, 2021;49: e94.
[6] Li Y#, Xu Z#, Han W#, Cao H#, Umarov R, Yan A, Fan M, Chen H, Duarte C, Li L, Ho P, Gao X*. HMD-ARG: Hierarchical Multi-task Deep learning for Annotating Antibiotic Resistance Genes, Microbiome, 2021;9: 40.
[7] Xu Z, Li Y, Li M, Xiang H, Yan A*. Harnessing the type I CRISPR-Cas systems for genome editing in prokaryotes, Environmental Microbiology, 2021;23:542-558.
[8] Xu Z*, Li Y, Yan A*. Repurposing the native type I-F CRISPR-Cas system in P. aeruginosa for genome editing, STAR Protocols, 2020;1: 100039.
[9] Xu Z#, Li M#, Li Y, Cao H, Miao L, Xu Z, Higuchi Y, Yamasaki S, Nishino K, Woo P, Xiang H*, Yan A*. Native CRISPR-Cas-mediated genome editing enables dissecting and sensitizing clinical multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa, Cell Reports, 2019;29: 1707–1717.
[10] Xu Z, Wang P, Wang H, Yu ZH, Au-Yeung HY, Hirayama T, Sun H, Yan A*. Zinc excess increases cellular demand for iron and decreases tolerance to copper in Escherichia coli, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2019;294: 16978–16991.
[11] Xu Z, Yan A*. Multidrug efflux systems in microaerobic and anaerobic bacteria, Antibiotics 2015; 4, 379-396.