Xinnian Dong

Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Biology

Office:

4213 French Family Science Center, Durham, NC 27708

Campus Box:

Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708-1000

Phone:

(919) 613-8176

Email:

xdong@duke.edu

Dong lab website

Using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system, my laboratory studies the mechanisms of plant defense against microbial pathogens. We focus on a specific response known as systemic acquired resistance (SAR). SAR, which can be induced by a local infection, provides the plants with long lasting, systemic resistance against a broad spectrum of pathogens. Salicylic acid (SA; an active ingredient of aspirin) has been found to be the endogenous signal of SAR. Using a genetic approach, our laboratory identified genes involved in the regulation of SAR. Molecular and genetic analyses are being carried out to understand the gene function and to elucidate the SAR signaling pathway. These SAR-regulating genes are also favorite targets for molecular engineering of disease-resistance crops.

Education

Ph.D., Northwestern University 1988
B.S., National Wuhan University 1982

Li, Meina, Lijun Cao, Musoki Mwimba, Yan Zhou, Ling Li, Mian Zhou, Patrick S. Schnable, Jamie A. O’Rourke, Xinnian Dong, and Wei Wang. “Comprehensive mapping of abiotic stress inputs into the soybean circadian clock..” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116, no. 47 (November 2019): 23840–49. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1708508116. Full Text

Yoo, Heejin, George H. Greene, Meng Yuan, Guoyong Xu, Derek Burton, Lijing Liu, Jorge Marqués, and Xinnian Dong. “Translational Regulation of Metabolic Dynamics during Effector-Triggered Immunity..” Molecular Plant, September 27, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2019.09.009. Full Text

Mwimba, Musoki, Sargis Karapetyan, Lijing Liu, Jorge Marqués, Erin M. McGinnis, Nicolas E. Buchler, and Xinnian Dong. “Daily humidity oscillation regulates the circadian clock to influence plant physiology..” Nature Communications 9, no. 1 (October 16, 2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06692-2. Full Text

Greene, George H., and Xinnian Dong. “To grow and to defend..” Science (New York, N.Y.) 361, no. 6406 (September 2018): 976–77. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau9065. Full Text

Karapetyan, Sargis, and Xinnian Dong. “Redox and the circadian clock in plant immunity: A balancing act..” Free Radical Biology & Medicine 119 (May 2018): 56–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2017.12.024. Full Text

Withers, John, and Xinnian Dong. “Post-translational regulation of plant immunity..” Current Opinion in Plant Biology 38 (August 2017): 124–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2017.05.004. Full Text Open Access Copy

Gu, Yangnan, Raul Zavaliev, and Xinnian Dong. “Membrane Trafficking in Plant Immunity..” Molecular Plant 10, no. 8 (August 2017): 1026–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2017.07.001. Full Text Open Access Copy

Xu, Guoyong, Meng Yuan, Chaoren Ai, Lijing Liu, Edward Zhuang, Sargis Karapetyan, Shiping Wang, and Xinnian Dong. “uORF-mediated translation allows engineered plant disease resistance without fitness costs..” Nature 545, no. 7655 (May 17, 2017): 491–94. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22372. Full Text

Xu, Guoyong, George H. Greene, Heejin Yoo, Lijing Liu, Jorge Marqués, Jonathan Motley, and Xinnian Dong. “Global translational reprogramming is a fundamental layer of immune regulation in plants..” Nature 545, no. 7655 (May 17, 2017): 487–90. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22371. Full Text Open Access Copy

Mwimba, Musoki, and Xinnian Dong. “The CAT(2) Comes Back..” Cell Host & Microbe 21, no. 2 (February 2017): 125–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2017.01.012. Full Text