Tao Zhao

Professor

College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University

No.3 Taicheng Road,

Yangling, Shaanxi Province, 712100, China

Email: tao.zhao@nwafu.edu.cn

Education and Work Experience

Tao Zhao obtained his PhD in 2018 at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. After a postdoctoral fellowship with Yves Van de Peer at the University of Ghent University, he was appointed as a Professor in June 2020 at the college of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University.

Research Interests

Tao Zhao is particularly interested in comparative genomics and genome evolution. He has been working on a network approach for large-scale phylogenomic synteny analysis. Such a method of building synteny networks from large syntenic connections of pairwise syntenic blocks across many species will garner new insights into genome and gene family evolutionary history. Furthermore, the network approach is a reliable method to identify and organize syntelogs derived from the frequent and independent ancient and recent WGDs in plants. Network statistical and mathematic parameters provide a framework for testing hypotheses of gene family expansion and contraction in a phylogenomic context. His research results were published in journals such as PNAS, The Plant Cell, Current Opinion in Plant Biology, etc. Current ongoing directions include studies on comparative genomics underlying the key traits in Malus, and in Rosaceae.

Selected Publications

1. Zhao, T. and Schranz, E., (2019).  Network-based microsynteny analysis identifies major differences and genomic outliers in mammalian and angiosperm genomes.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 116(6), 2165-2174.

2. Zhao, T., Holmer, R., de Bruijn, S., Angenent, G.C., van den Burg, H.A., and Schranz, M.E. (2017). Phylogenomic synteny network analysis of MADS-box transcription factor genes reveals lineage-specific transpositions, ancient tandem duplications, and deep positional conservation.  The Plant Cell  29, 1278-1292.

3. Zhao, T., and Schranz, M.E. (2017). Network approaches for plant phylogenomic synteny analysis.  Current Opinion in Plant Biology  36, 129-134.

4. Zhao, T., Liang, D., Wang, P., Liu, J., and Ma, F. (2012). Genome-wide analysis and expression profiling of the DREB transcription factor gene family in Malus under abiotic stress.  Molecular Genetics and Genomics  287, 423-436.

5. Artur, M.A.S.*, Zhao, T.*, Ligterink, W., Schranz, M.E. and Hilhorst, H.W. (2018). Dissecting the genomic diversification of LATE EMBRYOGENESIS ABUNDANT (LEA) protein gene families in plants.  Genome Biology and Evolution. (* contribute equally)