Texas Tech University

Hong Zhang, Ph.D.

Professor
Department of Biological Sciences

Email: hong.zhang@ttu.edu

Phone: +1 (806) 834-1579

Plant Molecular Biology and Plant Biotechnology

Research Groups: Cell & Molecular Biology,  Genetics & Genomics, Plant Biology 

Education: 
  • Postdoc Research, Harvard Medical School,  USA (1989-1994)
  • Ph.D., Genetics, Michigan State University, USA (1983-1989)
  • B.S., Microbiology, Sichuan University,  China (1978-1982)
Hong Zhang

Research Interests

We would like to dramatically improve crop yields by increasing drought-, heat-, and salt-tolerance in transgenic crops through the use of biotechnology. We are also studying the functions of plant protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), especially its role in plant response to abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and extreme temperatures. Furthermore, we are studying the molecular mechanism of protein targeting to peroxisomal membranes by characterizing a molecular chaperone (i.e. AKR2A) that regulates the biogenesis of some microsomal and peroxisomal membrane proteins.

Selected Publications

  • Zhang, H. (2023). A breakthrough in cotton transformation technology. Journal of Cotton Research, 6:8 https://doi.org/10.1186/s42397-023-00147-w. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Balasubramaniam, T., Guoxin Shen, G., Nardana Esmaeili, N., and Zhang, H. (2023). Plants' response mechanisms to salinity stress. Plants, 12, 2253. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12122253. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Chen, T., Li, G., and Zhang, H. (2023). Editorial: Advances in peanut research. Frontiers in Plant Science. DOI 10.3389/fpls.2023.1180009. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Smith, J., Wijewardene, I., Cai, Y., Esmaeili, N., Shen, G., Hequet, E., Ritchie, G., Jones, D., Payton, P., and Zhang, H. (2023). Co-overexpression of RCA and AVP1 in cotton substantially improves fiber yield for cotton under drought, moderate heat, and salt tolerance. Current Research in Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crbiot.2023.100123. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Cao, H., Ren, W., Gao, H., Lü, X., Zhao, Q., Zhang, H., Rensing, C., and Zhang, J. (2023). HaASR2 from Haloxylon ammodendron confers drought and salt tolerance in plants. Plant Science, 328, 111572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111572. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Esmaeili, N., Shen, G., and Zhang, H. (2022). Genetic manipulation for abiotic stress resistance traits in crops. Frontiers in Plant Science. DOI 10.3389/fpls.2022.1011985. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Balasubramaniam, T., Wijewardene, I., Hu, R., Shen, G., and Zhang, H. (2022). Co-overexpression of AVP1, PP2A-C5, and AtCLCc in Arabidopsis thaliana greatly increases tolerance to salt and drought stresses. Environmental and Experimental Botany. 104934. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Zhu, X., Shen, G., Wijewardene, I., Cai, Y., Esmaeili, N., Sun, L., Zhang, H. (2021). The B'ζsubunit of protein phosphatase 2A negatively regulates ethylene signaling in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. Biochem. 169, 81-91. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Wijewardene, I., Shen, G., and Zhang, H. (2021). Enhancing crop yield by using Rubisco activase to improve photosynthesis under elevated temperatures. Stress Biology, 1:2. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Esmaeili, N., Cai, Y., Tang, F., Zhu, X., Smith, J., Mishra, N., Hequet, E., Ritchie, G., Jones, D., Shen, G., Payton, P., and Zhang, H. (2021). Towards doubling fiber yield for cotton in the semiarid agricultural area by increasing tolerance to drought, heat, and salinity simultaneously. Plant Biotech. J. 19, 462-476. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Ganapathy, S., Parajulee, Megha, P., San Francisco, M., Zhang, H., Bilimoria, S. (2021). Novel-iridoviral kinase induces mortality and reduces performance of green peach aphids (Myzus persicae) in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Plant Biotech. Rep. 15, 13-25. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Hu, W., Chen, L., Qiu, X., Wei, J., Lu, H., Sun, G., Ma, X., Yang, Z., Zhu, C., Hou, Y., Han, X., Sun, C., Hu, R., Cai, Y., Zhang, H., Li, F., Shen, G. (2020). AKR2A participates in the regulation of cotton fiber development by modulating biosynthesis of very-long-chain fatty acids. Plant Biotech. J, 18, 526-539. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Wijewardene, I., Mishra, N., Sun, L., Smith, J., Zhu, X., Payton, P., Shen, G. and Zhang, H. (2020). Improving drought-, salinity-, and heat-tolerance in transgenic plants by co-overexpressing Arabidopsis vacuolar pyrophosphatase gene AVP1 and Larrea Rubisco activase gene RCA. Plant Sci. 296, 110499. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Chen, L., Hu, W., Mishra, N., W., Lu, H., Hou, Y., Qiu, X., Yu, S., Wang, C., Zhang, H., Cai, Y., Sun, C., Shen, G. (2020). AKR2A interacts with KCS1 to improve VLCFAs contents and chilling tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Esmaeili, N., Yang, X., Cai, Y., Sun, L., Zhu, X., Shen, G., Payton, P., Fang, W., and Zhang. H. (2019). Co-overexpression of AVP1 and OsSIZ1 in Arabidopsis substantially enhances plant tolerance to drought, salt, and heat stresses. Sci. Rep. 9, 7642 (www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44062-0). Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Sun, L., Pehlivan, N., Esmaeili, N., Jiang, W., Yang, X., Jarrett, P., Mishra, N., Zhu, X., Cai, Y., Herath, M., Shen, G., Zhang, H. (2018). Co-overexpression of AVP1 and PP2A-C5 in Arabidopsis makes plants tolerant to multiple abiotic stresses. Plant Sci., 274, 271-283. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Zhu, X., Sun, L., Kuppu, S., Hu, R., Mishra, N., Smith, J., Esmaeili, N., Herath, M., Gore, M., Payton, P., Shen, G., Zhang, H. (2018). The yield difference between wild-type cotton and transgenic cotton that expresses IPT depends on when water-deficit stress is applied. Sci. Rep. | 8:2538 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-20944-7. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Welsch, R., Zhou, X., Yuan, H., Alvarez, D., Sun, T., Schlossarek, D., Yang, Y., Shen, G., Zhang, H., Rodriguez-Concepcion, M., Thannhauser, T., and Li, L. (2018). Clp protease and OR directly control the proteostasis of phytoene synthase, the critical enzyme for carotenoid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. Mol. Plant. 11, 149-162. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Jiang, W., Sun, L., Yang, X., Wang, M., Esmaeili, N., Pehlivan, N., Zhao, R., Zhang, H., and Zhao, Y. (2017). The effects of transcription directions of transgenes and the gypsy insulators on the transcript levels of transgenes in transgenic Arabidopsis. Sci. Rep. | 7: 14757 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-15284-x. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Mishra, N., Sun, L., Zhu, X., Smith, J., Srivastava, A.P., Yang, X., Pehlivan, N., Esmaeili, N., Luo, H., Shen, G., Jones, D., Auld, D., Burke, J., Payton, P., Zhang, H. (2017). Overexpression of the rice SUMO E3 ligase gene OsSIZ1 in cotton enhances drought and heat tolerance, and substantially improves fiber yields in field under reduced irrigation and rainfed conditions. Plant Cell Physiol., Vol. 58, pp. 735-746. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Hu, R., Zhu, Y., Shen, G., and Zhang, H. (2017). Overexpression of the PP2A-C5 gene confers increased salt tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Sig. Beh., Vol. 12, No. 2, e1276687 Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Hu, R., Zhu, Y., Wei, J., Chen, J., Shen, G., H. Shi., and Zhang, H. (2017). Overexpression of PP2A-C5 that encodes the catalytic subunit 5 of protein phosphatase 2A in Arabidopsis confers better root and shoot development under salt conditions. Plant Cell Environment, 40,150-164. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Hu, W., Chen, L., Qiu, X., Lu, H., Wei, J., Bai, Y., He, N., Hu, R., Sun, L., Zhang, H., Shen, G. (2016). Morphological, physiological and proteomic analyses provide insights into the improvement of castor bean productivity of a dwarf variety in comparing with a high-stalk variety. Frontiers in Plant Science, Vol. 7, Article 1473. Click here to download a PDF copy
  • Pehlivan, N., Sun, L., Jarrett, P., Yang, X., Mishra, N., Chen, L., Kadioglu, A., Shen, G., and Zhang, H. (2016). Co-overexpressing a plasma membrane sodium/proton antiporter and a vacuolar membrane sodium/proton antiporter significantly improves salt tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Plant Cell & Physiology, 57, 1069-1084. Click here to download a PDF Copy
  • Chen, J., Zhu, X., Shen, G., and Zhang, H. (2015). Overexpression of AtPTPA in Arabidopsis increases protein phosphatase 2A activity by promoting holoenzyme formation and ABA negatively affects holoenzyme formation. Plant Sig. Beh., e1052926. Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Wei, J., Qiu, X., Chen, L., Hu, R., Chen, J., Sun, L., Li, L., Zhang, H., Lv, Z., and Shen, G. (2015). The E3 ligase AtCHIP positively regulates Clp proteolytic subunit homeostasis. J. Exp. Bot.  66, 5809-5820  Click here to download a PDF copy.
  • Wei, J., Chen, L., Qiu, X., Hu, W., Sun, H., Chen, X., Bai, Y., Gu, X., Wang, C., Chen, H., Hu, R., Zhang, H., Shen, G. (2015). Optimizing refining temperatures to reduce the loss of essential fatty acids and bioactive compounds in tea seed oil. Food and Bioproducts Processing, 94, 136-146.
  • Chen, J., Hu, R., Zhu, Y., Shen, G., Zhang, H. (2014). Arabidopsis thaliana phosphotyrosyl phosphatase activator is essential for protein phosphatase 2A holoenzyme assembly and plays important roles in hormone signaling, salt stress response, and plant development. Plant Physiol . , Vol  166, pp. 1519-1534.  Click  here  to download a pdf of the article. 
  • Shen, G., Wei, J., Qiu, X., Hu, R., Kuppu, S., Auld, D., Blumwald, E., Gaxiola, R., Payton, P., and Zhang, H. (2015). Co-overexpression of AVP1  and  AtNHX1  in cotton further improves drought and salt tolerance in transgenic cotton plants.  Plant Mol. Biol. Rep. 33, 167-177 Click  here to download a pdf of this article. 
  • Hu, R., Zhu, Y., Shen, G., and Zhang, H. (2014). TAP46 plays a positive role in the abscisic acid insensitive 5-regulated gene expression in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol . , Vol. 164, pp.721-734.? ( http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/164/2/721.full.pdf+html ).? Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Kuppu, S., Mishra, Hu, R., Sun, L., Zhu, X., Shen, G., Blumwald, E., Payton, P., and Zhang, H. (2013). Water-deficit inducible expression of a cytokinin biosynthetic gene IPT in cotton improves drought tolerance under controlled environment growth conditions. PLoS ONE 8(5): e64190. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064190 ( http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064190 ).
  • Sun, L., Hu, R., Shen, G., and Zhang, H. (2013). Genetic engineering peanut for higher drought- and salt-tolerance. Food Nutrition Sci. 4, 1-7. ( http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=33008 ).
  • Qin, H., Gu, Q., Kuppu, S., Sun, L., Zhu, X., Mishra, N., Hu, R., Shen, G., Zhang, J., Zhang, Y., Zhu, L., Zhang, X., Burow, M., Payton, P., and Zhang, H. (2013). Expression of the Arabidopsis vacuolar H+-pyrophosphatase gene AVP1 in peanut to improve drought and salt tolerance. Plant Biotech. Rep. 7, 345–355. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Banjara, M., Zhu, L., Shen, G., Payton, P., and Zhang, H. (2012). Expression of an Arabidopsis sodium/proton antiporter gene AtNHX1 in peanut to improve salt tolerance. Plant Biotech. Rep . 6, 59-67. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Qin, H., Gu, Q., Zhang, J., Sun, L., Kuppu, S., Zhang, Y., Burow, M., Payton, P., Blumwald, E., and Zhang, H. (2011). Regulated overexpression of IPT in peanut significantly improves drought tolerance and increases yield under field conditions. Plant Cell Physiol . 52, 1904-1914. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Kuppu, S., Shen, G., Payton, P., and Zhang, H. (2011). Developing drought tolerant crops. In Drought: New Research . Nova Science, Hauppauge, New York.
  • Zhang, H., Shen, G., Kuppu, S., Gaxiola, R., and Payton, P. (2011). Creating drought- and salt-tolerant cotton by overexpressing a vacuolar pyrophosphatase gene. Plant Sig. Beh . 6, 861-863. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Passapula, V., Shen, G., Kuppu, S., Paez-Valencia, J., Mendoza, M., Hou, P., Chen, J., Qiu, X., Zhu, L., Zhang, X., Auld, D., Blumwald, E., Zhang, H., Gaxiola, R., and Payton, P. (2011). Expression of an Arabidopsis vacuolar H+-pyrophosphatase gene AVP1 in cotton improves drought- and salt-tolerance and increases fiber yield in the field conditions. Plant Biotech. J . 9, 88-99. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Zhang, H., Li, X., Kuppu, S., and Shen, G. (2010). Is AKR2A an essential molecular chaperone for a class of membrane-bound proteins in plants? Plant Sig. Beh . 11, 1520-1522. Click here to download apdf of this article.
  • Shen, G., Kuppu, S., Venkataramani, S., Wang, J., Yan, J., Qiu, X., and Zhang, H. (2010). AKR2A is an essential molecular chaperone for peroxisomal membrane-bound ascorbate peroxidase 3 in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 22, 811-831.? Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Shen, G., Adam, Z., and Zhang, H. (2007). The E3 ligase AtCHIP ubiquitylates chloroplast protease FtsH1 and affects protein degradation in chloroplast. Plant J . , 52, 309-321. Click here to download a pdf of this articel.
  • Shen, G., Yan, J., Luo, J., He, C., Pasapula, V., Clarke, A.K., and Zhang, H. (2007). The chloroplast protease ClpP4 is a substrate of the E3 ligase AtCHIP and plays an important role in chloroplast function. Plant J . 49, 228-237. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • Narendra, S., Venkataramani1, S., Wang, J., Shen, G., Lin, Y., Kornyeyev, D., Holaday, S., and Zhang, H. (2006). The Arabidopsis ascorbate peroxidase 3 is a peroxisomal membrane-bound antioxidant enzyme, and is dispensable for Arabidopsis growth and development. J. Exp. Bot . 57, 3033-3042.
  • Luo, J., Yan, J., Shen, G., He, C., and Zhang, H. (2006). Overexpression of AtCHIP , a gene that encodes an E3 ubiquitin ligase, increases protein phosphatase 2A activity and alters plant response to abscisic acid treatment. Plant J . 46, 649-657. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
  • He, C., Shen, G., Pasapula, V., Luo, J., Venkataramani, S., Qiu, X., Kuppu, S., Kornyeyev, D., Holaday, A.S., Auld, D., Blumwald, E., and Zhang, H. (2007). Ectopic expression of AtNHX1 in cotton Gossypium Hirsutum enhances salt tolerance and improves photosynthetic performance. J. Cotton Sci . 11, 266-274.
  • He, C., Yan, J., Shen, G., Fu, L., Holaday, S., Auld, D., Blumwald, E., and Zhang, H. (2005). Expression of an Arabidopsis vacuolar sodium/proton antiporter gene in cotton improves photosynthetic performance under salt conditions and increase fiber yield in the field. Plant Cell Physiol . 46, 1848-1854. Click here to download a pdf of this article
  • Yan, J., Wang, J., He, C., Holaday, A.S., Allen, R., and Zhang, H. (2004). Overexpression of the Arabidopsis 14-3-3 protein GF14 l in cotton delays leaf senescence and improves drought tolerance. Plant Cell Physiol. 45, 1007-1014.?Click here to download a pdf of this article.