RESEARCH OUTREACH INSTITUTE CONFERENCE CENTER
ACADEMICS TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES

Horticulture & Forestry

Dr. Zhiwu Li, Research Assistant Professor - ISRR

My current research interests at the ISRR relate to the following areas:

1) Developing high-throughput transformation processes for different kinds of plants including
tobacco, wheat, rice, soybean and maize etc.

2) The high value biological compounds from plants and novel processing technologies research for: development of high value functional food for human health; breeding novel crops producing high yields of industrial enzymes, pharmaceuticals and/or vaccines.

3) Mechanisms of transgene silencing, strategies to overcome transgene expression difficulties. Utilization of RNAi for plant disease resistant and gene function study

4) Global gene expression profiling and candidate gene identification and characterization; using transgenic plants as a tool for functional genomic studying.



Selected Publications


Zhiwu Li, Sarah M., Essig J.S., Wohler S., Muthukrishnan S.,Hainline B., Trick H.N. 2005.Construction and Expression of Phenylalaine-free Maize γ-Zein Gene in Soybean Seeds. (Submitted)

Zhiwu Li, Jenny L. Hansen, Patrick S. Shiel, Robert S. Zemetra and Philip H. Berger. 2005. Mechanisms of Plant Transgene Silencing and its Suppression Strategies. Crop Research. 30(3): 315-330.

Zhiwu Li, Sarah M., Essig J.S., Liu Y., Wohler S., Muthukrishnan S.,Hainline B., Trick H.N. 2005. High-level expression of maize <gamma>-zein protein in transgenic soybean (Glycine max), Molecular Breeding. 16: (1) 11-20.

Zhiwu Li and Harold N. Trick. 2005. A rapid method for high quality RNA isolation from seed endosperm containing high level of starch. Biotechniques. 38: (6) 872-876.

Zhiwu Li and Harold N. Trick. 2005. Transgenic soybean producing phenylalanine-free zein protein. National PKU News. 17(1):3-4.

Zhiwu Li, Ying Liu and Philip H. Berger. 2005. Transgene silencing in wheat transformed with the WSMV coat protein gene. Biotechnology 4(1): 62-68.

Zhiwu Li, Juliane S. Essig, Melissa A. Schapaugh, S. Muthukrishnan, Bryan E. Hainline, Harold N. Trick. 2005. Enhancing the Nutritional Value of Soybean (Glycine max) by Genetic Engineering. Proceedings of the Congress on Invitro Biology, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Zhiwu Li, Jennifer L. Hansen, Ying Liu, Robert S. Zemetra and Philip H. Berger. 2004. Using Real-Time PCR to Determine Transgene Copy Number in Wheat. Plant Mol. Bio. Rep. 22:179-188.

Zhiwu Li., Hansen J. L., Zemetra R.S., and Berger P.H. 2003. Reactivation of silenced transgenes by 5-azacytidine in wheat transformed with the WSMV coat protein gene. Oral presentation in the annual international APS annual conference, Raleigh, NC. Phytopathology 93:52-53.

Zhiwu Li, Sarah M., Essig J.S., Wohler S., Muthukrishnan S.,Hainline B., Trick H.N. 2004.Construction and Expression of Phenylalaine-free Maize γ-Zein Gene in Soybean Seeds. 10th Biennial conference of the cellular and molecular biology of the soybean. Columbia, Missouri. USA.

Robert S. Zemetra, E. Souza, S. Guy, L. Robertson, B. Brown, N. Bosque-Pérez, J. Hansen, K. O'Brien, M. Guttieri, D. Schotzko, T. Koehler, L. Sorensen, J. Clayton, Zhiwu Li, and M. Rehman. 2003. Contributions from USA in wheat molecular biology. Annual Wheat Newsletter. 49: 168.

Zhiwu Li Hanson J., Zemetra R.S., and Berger P.H. 2003. DNA Methylation and Transgene Silencing in Wheat Transformed with the Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus Coat Protein Gene. Proceedings of the Congress on Invitro Biology, Oregon, USA.