Projects and Pubs

Ongoing Projects

  • “A Fungal-amended Approach to Enhance Long-term Mineral Carbon Storage”, Peter Kang and Jiwei Zhang. Biotechnology & Biomanufacturing Seed Grant, UMN. 05/01/2024-04/30/2025. (Co-PI)
  • “SBIR Phase I: Unlocking the Potential of Mycoremediation: An Integrated Biological Approach to Combatting PFAS Contamination.” Myconaut LLC and Jiwei Zhang. 05/01/2024-04/30/2025. (Co-PI)
  • UMN - CFANS/BBE - Startup (PI; Sep. 2020- Sep. 2026)
  • USDA - NIFA - McIntire-Stennis (M-S) Program; "Creating and applying a toolkit for genetic transformations in wood-degrading fungi" (PI; 2020-2024)
  • DOE - BER - Genomic Sciences research program; "A gene-editing system for large-scale fungal phenotyping in a model wood decomposer" (PI; w/ UMN, UW, JGI, PNNL; 09/1/2021-08/31/2025)
  • Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources - Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund; "PFAS Fungal-Wood Chip Filtering System" (PI; w/ Roger Ruan; 07/01/2022-06/30/2024)
  • U.S.-Israel Agricultural Research and Development Funds; "Sharing a lignocellulosic dish: exploiting a bi-fungal consortium and its interacting mechanisms for agricultural residues conversion" (PI; w/ Hadar, Y. and Yarden, O. at Hebrew U; 12/01/2022-11/30/2025)

Accomplished Projects

  • UMN - MnDRIVE - Seed Grant for Graduate Student; "Mycoremediation of PFAS: Exploiting fungal pathways to tackle the “forever chemicals" (PI; w/ Cara Santelli, Jerry Cohen; 07/01/2021-06/30/2023)
  • UMN - MnDRIVE - Seed Grant for Postdoc; "Closing the Life Cycle Loop on Adhesives with Biological Remediation" (Co-PI; w/ Steve Severtson; 07/01/2021-06/30/2023)
  • DOE - PNNL/EMSL - Large-Scale EMSL User Facility Grant; "Carbon signaling cascades that enable the carbohydrate-selective plant biomass degradation by brown-rot fungi"  (PI; w/ Schilling; 10/01/2020-09/30/2022)
  • UMN - MnDRIVE - Seed Grant for Undergraduate; "Exploiting wood-decomposing fungi to reuse lumber waste" (PI; w/ Ramaswamy and Tschirner; 2020-2021)
  • DOE - PNNL/EMSL - Large-Scale EMSL User Facility Grant; "Orchestrated chaos at the hyphal tip as fungi oxidatively decompose plant cell walls" (Co-PI; w/ Schilling; 2019-2021)

Selected Publications

  • Jesus Castaño, Drew A. Hauge, Adam Haag, Steven J. Severtson*, and Jiwei Zhang*. (2024) Assessment of Fungal Decomposition Strategies as a Step Towards the Development of Sustainable Pressure Sensitive Adhesives. Journal of Polymers and the Environment. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-024-03329-y
  • Jesus Castaño, Irina V. Novikova, Joshua Goering, James E. Evans, Jiwei Zhang*. (2024) Unlocking the Distinctive Enzymatic Functions of the Early Plant Biomass Deconstructive Genes in a Brown Rot Fungus by Cell-free Protein Expression. Appl Environ Microbiol 90:e00122-24.
  • Oded Yarden, Jiwei Zhang#, Dor Marcus, Chunoti Changwal, Sameer J. Mabjeesh, Anna Lipzen, Yu Zhang, Emily Savage, Vivian Ng, Igor V. Grigoriev, and Yitzhak Hadar. (2023) Altered Expression of Two Small Secreted Proteins (ssp4 and ssp6) Affects the Degradation of a Natural Lignocellulosic Substrate by Pleurotus ostreatus. International Journal of Molecular Science 24(23), 16828; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242316828.
  • Jesus Castaño, Drew A. Hauge, Adam Haag, Steven J. Severtson*, and Jiwei Zhang*. (2023) Fungal biodegradation of a hybrid adhesive polymer containing high-biomass content. Journal of Polymers and the Environment. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10924-023-02938-3#citeas
  • Weiran Li, Charles Ayers, Weiping Huang, Jonathan S. Schilling, Daniel Cullen, Jiwei Zhang*. (2023) A laccase gene reporting system that enables genetic manipulations in a brown rot wood decomposer fungus Gloeophyllum trabeum. Microbiology Spectrum. https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.04246-22.
  • Jiwei Zhang, Lye Meng Markillie, Hugh D Mitchell, Matthew J Gaffrey, Galya Orr, Jonathan S Schilling. (2022) Distinctive carbon repression effects in the carbohydrate-selective wood decay fungus Rhodonia placenta. Fungal Genet Biol 159, 103673.
  • Claire E Anderson, Jiwei Zhang, Lye Meng Markillie, Hugh D Mitchell, William B Chrisler, Matthew J Gaffrey, Galya Orr, Jonathan S Schilling. (2022) Capturing an Early Gene Induction Event during Wood Decay by the Brown Rot Fungus Rhodonia placenta. Appl Environ Microbiol 88 (8), e00188-22.

  • Dušan Veličković, Mowei Zhou, Jonathan S. Schilling, Jiwei Zhang*. (2021) Using MALDI-FTICR-MS Imaging to Track Low-Molecular-Weight Aromatic Derivatives of Fungal Decayed Wood. J Fungi (Basel). 7(8):609. doi: 10.3390/jof7080609. PMID: 34436148; PMCID: PMC8397067.

  • Jesus Castaño, Jiwei Zhang, Mowei Zhou, Chia-Feng Tsai, Joon Yong Lee, Carrie Nicora, Jonathan Schilling. (2021) A Fungal Secretome Adapted for Stress Enabled a Radical Wood Decay Mechanism. mBio. 12(4):e0204021. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02040-21.

  • Yuan Zhu, Nayomi Plaza, Yuka Kojima, Makoto Yoshida, Jiwei Zhang, Jody Jellison, Sai Venkatesh Pingali, Hugh O’Neill and Barry Goodell. (2020) Nanostructural analysis of enzymatic and non-enzymatic brown rot fungal deconstruction of the lignocellulose cell wall. Front Microbiol 11:1389. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01389.

  • Gerald N. Presley, Jiwei Zhang, Samuel O. Purvine and Jonathan Schilling. (2020) Functional genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics reveal distinct combat strategies between lineages of wood-degrading fungi with redundant wood decay mechanisms. Front Microbiol | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01646.

  • Jiwei Zhang, Kevin Silverstein, Jesus David Castaño, Melania Figueroa, Jonathan Schilling. (2019) Gene regulation shifts shed light on fungal adaption in plant biomass decomposers. mBio 10:e02176-19.

  • Jiwei Zhang, Dehong Hu, Galya Orr, Jonathan Schilling. (2019) Fluorescence in situ mRNA hybridization for gene expression detection in a wood decay fungus. Int Biodeter Biodegr 143, 104731

  • Baojun Wu, Jill Gaskell, Jiwei Zhang, Christina Toapanta, Steven Ahrendt, Igor V Grigoriev, Robert A Blanchette, Jonathan S Schilling, Emma Master, Daniel Cullen, David S Hibbett. (2019) Evolution of substrate-specific gene expression and RNA editing in brown rot wood-decaying fungi. Nature ISME 13, 1391-1403.

  • Jiwei Zhang, Hugh D Mitchell, Lye Meng Markillie, Matthew J Gaffrey, Galya Orr, Jonathan Schilling. (2019) Reference genes for accurate normalization of gene expression in wood-decomposing fungi. Fungal Genet Biol 123, 33-40.

  • Jiwei Zhang and Jonathan S. Schilling (2017) Role of carbon source in the shift from oxidative to hydrolytic wood decomposition by Postia placenta. Fungal Genet Biol 106:1-8.

  • Jiwei Zhang, Gerald N. Presley, Kenneth E. Hammel, Jae-San Ryu, Jon R. Menke, Melania Figueroa, Dehong Hu, Galya Orr, Jonathan S. Schilling (2016) Localizing gene regulation reveals a staggered wood decay mechanism for the brown rot fungus Postia placenta. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 113:10968-10973.

  • Jiwei Zhang, Yanmei Zhang, Yaohua Zhong, Yinbo Qu, Tianhong Wang. (2012) Ras GTPases modulate morphogenesis, sporulation and cellulase gene expression in the cellulolytic fungus Trichoderma reesei. PLoS ONE, 7(11): e48786.

  • Jiwei Zhang, Yinbo Qu, Peng Xiao, Xiaoyan Wang, Tianhong Wang, Feng He. (2012) Improved biomass saccharification by Trichoderma reesei through heterologous expression of lacA gene from Trametes sp. AH28-2. J Biosci Bioeng 113:697-703. 

  • Jiwei Zhang, Yaohua Zhong, Xuena Zhao, Tianhong Wang. (2010) Development of the cellulolytic fungus Trichoderma reesei strain with enhanced β-glucosidase and filter paper activity using strong artifical cellobiohydrolase 1 promoter. Bioresour Technol 101:9815-9818.