Zaichao Zhang

Phd Student (Group member from 2014 until 2017) + 32 (0) 9 33 13 821 VIB / Ghent University Bioinformatics & Systems Biology Technologiepark 927 B-9052 Gent BELGIUM

CV

• Joint Ph.D. Candidate, Bioinformatics, 2013~2017(expected)
• Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London Ontario Canada
• VIB / Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Ghent University, Ghent Belgium

Research

I am working for The Genomics in Agricultural Pest Management (GAP-M) group (http://www.spidermite.org/gapm/), an international consortium featuring researchers from Canada, Spain, Belgium, France, and USA. We are focusing on the study of plant and cosmopolitan agricultural pest spider mite Tetranychus genomes to develop strategies to reduce spider mite damage and increase crop yield.

Currently we have three spider mite genomes: 1) The two-spot Tetranychus urticae feeds on more than 1000 host plants; 2) Tetranychus lintearius is host-specific only feeding on gorse; 3) Tetranychus evansi is feeding only on solanaceous plants. Our team has already published the first spider mite genome. Now I am working on the annotation and modification of three genomes. Meanwhile, I will be also interested in the evolution and transcript profiling of gene families associated with pest detoxification. By comparative analysis of the three genomes, it would provide us new system to uncover genome signature of different feeding models of major agricultural pests.