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Zhigang Xie, PhD

Zhigang Xie
Zhigang Xie, PhD

Associate Professor - Research

Contact

Molecular & Cellular Medicine
Wehner-Welch lab 116 Reynolds Medical Building
College Station, TX 77843
zxie@tamu.edu

Education and Training

  • Nanjing University, BS, Biology, 1993
  • Shanghai Institute of Physiology, MS, Neurobiology, 1996
  • University of Alabama, PhD, Cell Biology/Neuroscience, 2001

Research Interests

  • Xie's research focuses on the mechanisms governing the proliferation, differentiation, and migration of neural stem cells in the developing mammalian brain, and the relevance of these mechanisms to developmental brain disorders (such as autism spectrum disorders) and pediatric brain cancer.
  • Current projects include the analysis of how lipid signaling and planar cell polarity pathway regulate neural stem cell proliferation and migration in the embryonic mouse brain, and the investigation of how histone H3 K27M mutation drives de novo gliomagenesis in the pons

Representative Publications

  • Xie Z, Sanada K, Samuels BA, Shih H, Tsai LH. Serine 732 phosphorylation of FAK by Cdk5 is important for microtubule organization, nuclear movement, and neuronal migration. Cell. 2003 Aug 22;114(4):469-82. PubMed PMID: 12941275.
  • Xie Z, Moy LY, Sanada K, Zhou Y, Buchman JJ, Tsai LH. Cep120 and TACCs control interkinetic nuclear migration and the neural progenitor pool. Neuron. 2007 Oct 4;56(1):79-93. PMID:17920017. PMCID:PMC2642594
  • Davis DA, Wilson MH, Giraud J, Xie Z, Tseng HC, England C, Herscovitz H, Tsai LH, Delalle I. Capzb2 interacts with beta-tubulin to regulate growth cone morphology and neurite outgrowth. PLoS Biol. 2009 Oct;7(10):e1000208. doi:10.1371/ journal.pbio.1000208. Epub 2009 Oct 6. PMID:19806181. PMCID: PMC2748697
  • Buchman JJ, Tseng HC, Zhou Y, Frank CL, Xie Z, Tsai LH. Cdk5rap2 interacts with pericentrin to maintain the neural progenitor pool in the developing neocortex. Neuron. 2010 May 13;66(3):386-402. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.036. PMID:20471352
  • Frank CL, Ge X, Xie Z, Zhou Y, Tsai LH. Control of activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) persistence by multisite phosphorylation impacts cell cycle progression and neurogenesis. J Biol Chem. 2010 Oct 22;285(43):33324-37. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M110.140699. Epub 2010 Aug 19. PMID:20724472. PMCID:PMC2963346
  • Mahjoub MR, Xie Z, Stearns T. Cep120 is asymmetrically localized to the daughter centriole and is essential for centriole assembly. J Cell Biol. 2010 Oct 18;191(2):331-46. doi: 10.1083/jcb.201003009. PMID:20956381. PMCID:PMC2958470
  • Pinheiro EM, Xie Z, Norovich AL, Vidaki M, Tsai LH, Gertler FB. Lpd depletion reveals that SRF specifies radial versus tangential migration of pyramidal neurons. Nat Cell Biol. 2011 Jul 24;13(8):989-95. doi: 10.1038/ncb2292. PMID:21785421. PMCID:PMC3149714
  • Saffary R, Xie Z*. FMRP regulates the transition from radial glial cells to intermediate progenitor cells during neocortical development. J Neurosci. 2011 Jan 26;31(4):1427-39. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4854-10.2011. PMID:21273427 (* Corresponding author)
  • Xie Z*, Jones A, Deeney JT, Hur SK, Bankaitis VA. Inborn Errors of Long-Chain Fatty Acid beta-Oxidation Link Neural Stem Cell Self-Renewal to Autism. Cell Rep. 2016 Feb 9;14(5):991-9. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.01.004. Epub 2016 Jan 28. PMID:26832401. PMCID:PMC4749429 (* Corresponding author)
  • Xie Z*, Hur SK, Zhao L, Abrams CS, Bankaitis VA*. A Golgi Lipid Signaling Pathway Controls Apical Golgi Distribution and Cell Polarity during Neurogenesis. Dev Cell. 2018 Mar 26;44(6):725-740.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2018.02.025. PMID: 29587143. PMCID: PMC5877119 (*Co-corresponding authors)
  • Xie Z*, Bankaitis VA*. Phosphatidylinositol transfer protein/planar cell polarity axis regulates neocortical morphogenesis by supporting interkinetic nuclear migration. Cell Rep. 2022 May 31;39(9):110869. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110869. PMID: 35649377. PMCID: PMC9230501 (*Co-corresponding authors)