Dr. Xu is a Principal Investigator in Bio-X institutes at SJTU, China. His research interests are engaged in the field of evolutionary genomics and systems biology. Together with postdoctoral advisor Prof. Jianzhi George Zhang, he proposed the “Molecular Error” hypothesis for alternative transcription and translation (ATT), claiming that ATT is a kind of molecular error mainly due to the inaccuracy of molecular machines and is non-adaptive in species evolution. He has a membership in The Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution, serves as the review editor of Front. Fungal Biol., and reviewed manuscripts from journals Natl. Sci. Rev., Int. J. Mol. Sci., Genome Biol. Evol., Microorganisms, etc.

Dr. Xu’s lab is focusing on the genomics and evolution, especially on the genome-wide mechanism of eukaryotic transcription and translation and its significance in species evolution. In addition, He is also interested in the studies about fungal pathogens and human disease.

1.         Xu, C., & Zhang, J. (2020). Mammalian alternative translation initiation is mostly nonadaptive. Molecular Biology and Evolution. Mar 7. pii: msaa063. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msaa063.

2.         Xu, C., and Zhang, J. (2020) A different perspective on alternative cleavage and polyadenylation. Nature Review Genetics., doi: 10.1038/s41576-019-0198-z

3.         Xu, C., Park, J. K., & Zhang, J. (2019). Evidence that alternative transcriptional initiation is largely nonadaptive. PLoS biology, 17(3), e3000197.

4.         Xu, C., & Zhang, J. (2018). Alternative Polyadenylation of Mammalian Transcripts Is Generally Deleterious, Not Adaptive. Cell systems. 6 (6), 734-742.e4

5.         Xu, C., Liu, R., Zhang, Q., Chen, X., Qian, Y., & Fang, W. (2016). The diversification of evolutionarily conserved MAPK cascades correlates with the evolution of fungal species and development of lifestyles. Genome biology and evolution, evw051.

6.         Xu, C., Zhang, X., Qian, Y., Chen, X., Liu, R., Zeng, G., ... & Fang, W. (2014). A High-Throughput Gene Disruption Methodology for the Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii. PloS one, 9(9), e107657.

7.         Xu, C., Liu, L., Zhang, Z., Jin, D., Qiu, J., & Chen, M. (2013). Genome-scale metabolic model in guiding metabolic engineering of microbial improvement. Applied microbiology and biotechnology, 97(2), 519-539.

8.         Xu, C., Zhao,C., He, W., Qiu, J (2011). Selection of Bacillus cereus resisting to jingangmycin aqua. Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis,2011,23(6):1187-1191.

9.         Liu, R., Xu, C., Zhang, Q., Wang, S., Fang, W. (2017). Evolution of the chitin synthase gene family correlates with fungal morphogenesis and adaption to ecological niches. Scientific Reports. 7:44527 (Co-first author)

10.     Chen, X., Xu, C., Qian, Y., Liu, R., Zhang, Q., Zeng, G., ... & Fang, W. (2016). MAPK cascade‐mediated regulation of pathogenicity, conidiation and tolerance to abiotic stresses in the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium robertsii. Environmental microbiology. 18(3), 1048–1062 (Co-first author)

11.     Zhang, Q., Chen, X., Xu, C., Zhao, H., Zhang, X., Zeng, G., ... & Meng, Y. (2019). Horizontal gene transfer allowed the emergence of broad host range entomopathogens. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(16), 7982-7989.

12.     Guo, N., Qian, Y., Zhang, Q., Chen, X., Zeng, G., Zhang, X., ... Xu, C., Raymond J. St. Leger & Fang, W. * (2017). Alternative transcription start site selection in Mr-OPY2 controls lifestyle transitions in the fungus Metarhizium robertsii. Nature Communications, 8(1), 1565.

13.     Zeng, G., Chen, X., Zhang, X., Zhang, Q., Xu, C., Mi, W., ... & Bidochka, M. J. (2017). Genome‐wide identification of pathogenicity, conidiation and colony sectorization genes in Metarhizium robertsii. Environmental microbiology, 19(10), 3896-3908.

14.     Mao, Y., Zhang, Y., Xu, C., & Qiu, Y. * (2015). Comparative transcriptome resources of two Dysosma species (Berberidaceae) and molecular evolution of the CYP719A gene in Podophylloideae. Molecular ecology resources. 16(1), 228-241

15.     Zhao, H., Xu, C., Lu, H. L., Chen, X., Leger, R. J. S., & Fang, W. * (2014). Host-to-Pathogen Gene Transfer Facilitated Infection of Insects by a Pathogenic Fungus. PLoS pathogens, 10(4), e1004009.

16.     Shi, W., Guo, Y., Xu, C., Tan, S., Miao, J., Feng, Y., ... & Fang, W. * (2014). Unveiling the mechanism by which microsporidian parasites prevent locust swarm behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(4), 1343-1348.