Zhaohui Xu

Research Interests:

We study the genetics, genomics, and systems biology of hyperthermophiles, especially Thermotoga spp., which could ferment a variety of simple and complex sugars to produce hydrogen gas, representing a potential sustainable energy supply. We also study microbiomes in the environment. We employ and develop bioinformatics tools to examine microbial communities in soils, waters, and solid fermentation samples. Our goal is to understand the metabolic roles different species play within the communities and eventually engineer microbiomes to meet customized metabolic demands.

Selected Publications:

Brigham RD, Pelini S, Xu Z, Vázquez-Ortega A. Assessing the effects of lake dredged sediments on soil health: agricultural and environmental implications in Midwest Ohio. J. Environ. Qual. 2021; 1– 10.

Lanzilli M, Esercizio N, Vastano M, Xu Z, Nuzzo G, Gallo C, Manzo E, Fontana A, d’Ippolito G. Effect of Cultivation Parameters on Fermentation and Hydrogen Production in the Phylum Thermotogae. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021. 22, 341.

Gautam J, Xu Z. Construction and Validation of a Genome-Scale Metabolic Network of Thermotoga sp. Strain RQ7. Appl Biochem Biotechnol. 193(3), 896-911. 2021.

Impact Publications:

Han D, Xu Z. Development of a pyrE-based selective system for Thermotoga sp. strain RQ7. Extremophiles. 21(2):297-306. 2017.

Puranik P, Quan G, Werner J, Zhou R, Xu Z. A pipeline for completing bacterial genomes using in silico and wet lab approaches. BMC Genomics. 16(Suppl 3):S7. 2015.

Xu H, Han D, Xu Z. Overexpression of a lethal methylase M.TneDI in E. coli BL21(DE3). Biotechnology Letters. 36(9): 1853-1859. 2014.

Han D, Xu H, Puranik R, Xu Z. Natural transformation of Thermotoga sp. strain RQ7. BMC Biotechnology. 14:39. 2014.

Han D, Norris SM, Xu Z. Construction and transformation of a Thermotoga-E. coli shuttle vector. BMC Biotechnology. 12:2. 2012