Recognizing Plant Physiology authors: Zhiqian Pang

Zhiqian Pang, first author of Citrus CsACD2 is a target of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus in Huanglongbing disease

Current position: Biological Scientist III, Citrus Research and Education Center, Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Lake Alfred, FL, USA

Education: BS from Capital Normal University (CNU), China; Ph.D. from University of Chinese Academy of Science (UCAS), China; Postdoctoral research from University of Florida (UF), USA

Non-scientific Interests: cooking, traveling, history

Brief bio: After I earned my BS degree of Biological science and technology at Capital Normal University (CNU), I started my scientific career to study the interactions between plant and pathogens under the supervision of Prof. Lihuang Zhu and Prof. Songnian Hu at the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS). The main study of my Ph.D thesis is functional analysis of the resistance (R) genes responsible for rice resistance against blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. After graduation from CAS, I joined the Citrus Research and Education Center at University of Florida as a postdoctoral research associate under the supervision of Dr. Nian Wang to study the interaction between citrus and Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus (Las). Las colonizes in the phloem and causes citrus Huanglongbing (HLB). My research interest is to identify and characterize potential effectors of Las to elucidate how Las regulates citrus immune system and develop effective HLB control approaches.