Ongoing Projects
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; 2020-2023)
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; 09/1/2021-08/31/2024)
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)
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)
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)
Accomplished Projects
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
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.