Education & Experience
2005-2011 Ph.D.,Biological Science, National University of Singapore, with Professor Naweed Naqvi
1999-2003 B.A., Biological Science, Sun Yat-sen University
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2015-Now Professor, South China Agricultural University, China
2011-2015 Research Fellow, Temasek Life sciences Laboratory (TLL), Singapore
Awards & Honors
2007-2009 PhD scholarship,Singapore Millennium Foundation, Singapore
Research Fields
Rice blast and sugarcane smut are severe diseases of important crops, and both caused by fungal pathogens, resulting in great losses in crop yield and quality annually. Investigating the fungal pathogenicity, particularly the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying growth, differentiation, and virulence of pathogenic fungi, would be of importance in theoretical research and in agricultural practice. The research program in our group focuses on identification and regulatory mechanism of chemical signals mediating fungus-plant host, and fungus-environment interaction, by modulating autophagy, protein acetylation, and programmed cell death pathways.
Selected Publications
1. Meiling Liang#, Lihong Dong#, Yi Zhen Deng*. Circadian redox rhythm in plant-fungal pathogen interaction. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2022; doi: 10.1089/ars.2021.0281.
2.Lihong Dong#, Yuming Ma#, Cheng-Yen Chen, Lizheng Shen, Wenda Sun, Guobing Cui, Naweed I Naqvi*, Yi Zhen Deng*. Identification and Characterization of Auxin/IAA Biosynthesis Pathway in the Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. J Fungi (Basel). 2022; 8(2):208.
3.Chaoxiang Lin, Xue Cao, Ziwei Qu, Shulin Zhang, Naweed I Naqvi*, Yi Zhen Deng*. The Histone Deacetylases MoRpd3 and MoHst4 Regulate Growth, Conidiation, and Pathogenicity in the Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. mSphere. 2021; 6(3):e0011821.
4.Meiling Liang#, Huijuan Ye#, Qing Shen#, Xianya Jiang, Guobing Cui, Wenxiang Gu, Lian-Hui Zhang*, Naweed I Naqvi*, Yi Zhen Deng*. Tangeretin inhibits fungal ferroptosis to suppress rice blast. J Integr Plant Biol. 2021; 63(12):2136-2149.
5.Qing Shen#, Meiling Liang#, Fan Yang, Yi Zhen Deng*, Naweed I Naqvi*. Ferroptosis contributes to developmental cell death in rice blast. New Phytol. 2020; 227(6):1831-1846.
6.Shulin Zhang#, Chaoxiang Lin#, Tian Zhou, Lian-Hui Zhang*, Yi Zhen Deng*. Karyopherin MoKap119-mediated nuclear import of cyclin dependent kinase regulator MoCks1 is essential for Magnaporthe oryzae pathogenicity. Cellular Microbiology. 2020; 22(1):e13114.
7.Yi Zhen Deng#*, Naweed Naqvi*. Metabolic Basis of Pathogenesis and Host Adaptation in Rice Blast. Annual Review of Microbiology. 2019; 73:601-619.
8.Meiling Liang#, Shulin Zhang#, Lihong Dong, Yanjun Kou, Chaoxiang Lin, Weijun Dai, Lian-Hui Zhang*, Yi Zhen Deng*. Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics of Lysine Acetylome Identifies Substrates of Gcn5 in Magnaporthe oryzae Autophagy and Epigenetic Regulation. mSystems. 2018; 3(6):e00270-18.
9.Shulin Zhang#, Meiling Liang#, Naweed I.Naqvi, Chaoxiang Lin, Wanqiang Qian, Lian-Hui Zhang*, Yi Zhen Deng*. Phototrophy and starvation-based induction of autophagy upon removal of Gcn5-catalyzed acetylation of Atg7 in Magnaporthe oryzae. Autophagy. 2017; 13(8): 1318-1330.
10.Yi Zhen Deng#, Ziwei Qu#, Naweed I Naqvi*. Twilight, a Novel Circadian-Regulated Gene, Integrates Phototropism with Nutrient and Redox Homeostasis during Fungal Development. PLoS Pathog. 2015; 11(6):e1004972.