Lei Zhang

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

Selected Publications:

Zhang, L and Gleason, C. (2021) Transcriptome Analyses of Pre-parasitic and Parasitic Meloidogyne Chitwoodi Race 1 to Identify Putative Effector Genes. Journal of Nematology 53: e2021-84.

Bali, S*., Zhang, L*., Franco, J and Gleason, C. (2021) Biotechnological advances with applicability in potatoes for resistance against root-knot nematodes. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 70, 226-233 (*: authors with equal contributions)

Bali, S., Hu, S., Vining, K., Brown, C., Majtahedi, H., Zhang, L., Gleason, C. and Sathuvalli, V. (2021) Nematode Genome Announcement: Draft genome of Meloidogyne chitwoodi, an economically important pest of potato in the Pacific Northwest. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 34(8): 981-986

Zhang, L. and Gleason, C.A. (2020) Enhancing potato resistance against root-knot nematodes using a plant elicitor peptide delivered by bacteria. Nature Plants 6, 625-629.

Zhang, L. and Gleason, C.A. (2019) Loop-mediated isothermal amplification for the diagnostic detection of Meloidogyne chitwoodi and M. fallax. Plant Disease 103:1, 12-18.

Leelarasamee, N., Zhang, L. and Gleason, C.A. (2018) The root-knot nematode effector MiPFN3 disrupts plant actin filaments and promotes parasitism. PLOS Pathogens 14(3): e1006947.

Gleason, C.A., Polzin, F., Habash, S.S., Zhang, L., Utermark, J., Grundler, F.M. and Elashry, A. (2017) Identification of two Meloidogyne hapla genes and an investigation of their roles in the plant-nematode interaction. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 30: 101-122.

Zhang, L., Davies, L.J. and Elling, A.A. (2015) A Meloidogyne incognita effector is imported into the nucleus and exhibits transcriptional activation activity in planta. Molecular Plant Pathology 16: 48-60.

Davies, L.J., Zhang, L. and Elling, A.A. (2015) The Arabidopsis thaliana papain-like cysteine protease RD21 interacts with a root-knot nematode effector protein. Nematology 17: 655-666.