Deyu Xie
Bio
The research interests in my laboratory focus on understanding the structure and biosynthesis of plant natural products. Currently, my lab is working on flavonoids, terpenes and alkaloids. We are using a combinatorial approach that includes phytochemistry, metabolomics, molecular biology and biochemistry to understand the structures and biogenesis of these compounds. Meanwhile, we are developing the three groups of metabolites as a platform to study the metabolic biology of plant natural products. We are applying our findings to establish metabolic engineering technology to produce novel natural products for pharmaceuticals or modify crop plants to synthesize natural products for biofuel. We are interested in establishing novel approaches to screen for anti-cancer, anti-malaria, anti-virus and anti-aging natural products.
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Education
Ph.D. Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1997
M.S. Cytogenetics Beijing Normal University 1993
B.S. Biology Hunan Normal University 1988
Area(s) of Expertise
Phytochemistry, Metabolomics and Metabolic Engineering
Publications
- An enhancer-transposable element from purple leaf tea varieties underlies the transition from evergreen to purple leaf color , Plant Communications (2024)
- Polymerization of proanthocyanidins under the catalysis of miR397a-regulated laccases in Salvia miltiorrhiza and Populus trichocarpa , Nature Communications (2025)
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A defensive pathway from
NAC andTCP transcription factors activates aBAHD acyltransferase for (Z)‐3‐hexenyl acetate biosynthesis to resist herbivore in tea plant (Camellia sinensis) , New Phytologist (2024) - An efficient protocol for the extraction of pigment-free active polyphenol oxidase and soluble proteins from plant cells , Biology Methods and Protocols (2024)
- Characterization of Main Flavan-3-Ols, Oligomeric Proanthocyanidns and Bioactivities During Ccn-51 Cacao Processing , SSRN (2024)
- Chromosome-scale genome assembly of medicinal plant Tinospora sagittata (Oliv.) Gagnep. from the Menispermaceae family , SCIENTIFIC DATA (2024)
- Discrepancy on the flavor compound affect the quality of Taiping Houkui tea from different production regions , Food Chemistry: X (2024)
- Editorial: Proanthocyanidins and isoflavonoids , FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE (2024)
- HPLC-qTOF-MS/MS Based Profiling Reveals Anthocyanin Profile Alterations in Berries of Hybrid Muscadine Variety FLH 13-11 in Two Continuous Cropping Seasons , (2024)
- High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Tandem Mass Spectrometry-Based Profiling Reveals Anthocyanin Profile Alterations in Berries of Hybrid Muscadine Variety FLH 13-11 in Two Continuous Cropping Seasons , AGRONOMY-BASEL (2024)
Grants
Plant lectins are a large group of proteins that do not have catalytic activities. They are carbohydrate-binding proteins that bind sugar groups of proteins, peptides, polysaccharides, lipids, and other glycoconjugates. However, the production of lectins in plants are not high. Under this project, we propose to test different Escherichia coli and expression vectors to induce plant lectins, develop expression induction approaches for a high production, and then establish a combination of tag and affinity-column chromatography methods to isolate lectins.
Borlaug Fellowship Program for Turkey fellow to spend 12 weeks at NC State conducting research to weaken wheat phenylalanine ammonia-lyase gene promotor by homology directed repaid CRISPR-Cas9 technology to obtain more economical and effective biofuel production.
Using antibiotics in feed has become a global concern due to its contribution to the antibiotic resistance. Exploring the alternatives to antibiotics is necessary for human health and animal productive efficiency. Proanthocyanidins extracted from engineered novel plants and cells with biological and medicinal activities will be screened in this project.
Borlaug Fellowship Program for Sri Lanka fellow to spend 12 weeks at NC State conducting research to identify and characterize candidate resistance genes against blister blight disease in teac (Chinese sinensis).
The fellow will work on a topic entitled ����������������Metabolomics of cacao��������������� under the mentoring of Dr. Deyu Xie. Through this project, the fellow will learn extraction approaches of metabolites from cacao nuts and chocolate, HPLC-qTOF-MS/MS based metabolomics, structural annotation of metabolites, principal component analysis, and heatmap and hierarchy clustering analysis. The fellow will be instructed to read important literatures to understand the principle of metabolomics. In addition, the fellow will attend Xie������������������s weekly lab meeting and departmental seminars to gain additional opportunities to learn research progresses in other topics. By the end of this program, the fellow will master main metabolomics-based technology for characterization of functional metabolites in cacao nuts and will be able to develop research projects at their home university.