Cankui Zhang
Assistant Professor of Agronomy
Department: Agronomy
Phone: 765.496.6889
Office: Lilly 3-347
E-mail: ckzhang@purdue.edu
Area of Expertise: Crop Physiology
Curriculum Vitae
The Zhang lab periodically recruits graduate student
(M.S. and Ph.D.), postdoc, and visiting students/scholars. If you are
interested in joining the lab, please contact via email listed above.
Biography
Dr. Cankui Zhang is an Assistant Professor in Crop
Molecular Physiology in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University. He was
trained as a basic plant molecular physiologist before joining Purdue. At
Purdue he would like to use his knowledge in basic plant biology to improve the
quality and productivity of crops. His research focuses on the yield
improvement via the manipulation of carbon partitioning; whole plant signaling
under either abiotic (mineral deficiency) or biotic (root-microbe interactions)
stress; genetic engineering to increase Fe/Zn accumulation in tubers and seeds;
and heat/drought stress. Crops involved in his research include maize, soybean,
rice, wheat, and tomato.
Research
interest
Yield Improvement, Plant Mineral Physiology, Biofortification and Long Distance Signaling
Teaching (from 2015)
Crop Physiology
Recent Publications
Zhang, C., Han, L,
Slewinski, T., Sun, J., Zhang J, Wang Z-Y and Turgeon, R. 2014. Symplastic
phloem loading in poplar. Plant Physiology 166: 306-313.
Zhang, C., Yu, X, Ayre,
B and Turgeon, R. 2012. The origin and composition of cucurbit phloem exudate. Plant Physiology 158: 1873-1882.
Zhang, C. and
Robert Turgeon. 2009. Downregulating the sucrose transporter VpSUT1 in Verbascum phoeniceum L. does not inhibit phloem loading. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the USA (PNAS) 106: 18849-18854.
Slewinski,
T., Zhang, C and Robert Turgeon. 2013. Structural and functional heterogeneity in phloem loading and
transport. Frontiers in Plant Science 4: 1-11.
Slewinski, T.,
Anderson, A, Zhang, C and
Robert Turgeon. 2012. Scarecrow regulates kranz anatomy in maize leaves. Plant Cell Physiology 53: 2030-2037.
Majeran, W, Friso, G, Ponnala, L,
Connolly, B, Huang, M, Reidel, E, Zhang,
C., Asakura, Y, Bhuiyan,N, Sun,
Q, Turgeon, R and van Wijk, K.
2010. Structural and metabolic transitions of C4 leaf development
and differentiation defined by microscopy and quantitative proteomics in maize.
Plant Cell 22: 3509-3542.
Si, Y, Zhang,
C., Meng S, and Dane, F. 2009. Gene expression changes in response to
drought stress in Citrullus colocynthis.
Plant Cell Reports 28:
997-1009.
P. Lang*, Zhang C.*,
F. Dane, R. C. Ebel and W.A. Dozier.
2005. Cloning of cold acclimated genes in Citrus unshiu using
mRNA differential display. Gene
10: 111-118. (* co-first author)
Zhang, C., P. Lang, F. Dane, R.C. Ebel, N.K.
Singh, R. Locy and W.A. Dozier. 2005. Cold acclimation induced genes of
trifoliate orange. Plant Cell Reports
23: 764-769.
Zhang, C., P. Lang, F. Dane, R.C. Ebel, N.K.
Singh, R. Locy and W.A. Dozier. 2005. The effect of chilling temperatures on
gene expression in Poncirus trifoliata. Canadian Journal of Plant Sciences 85: 417-424.