About me
I am currently a research fellow at the Roslin institute, University of Edinburgh, UK. My project is about the genomics of sparrow and the RNA-seq analysis on seasonality. I did my PhD in Wageningen University& Research, the Netherlands. My PhD project in WUR focused on functional genomics in chicken, especially genetic variants and haplotype diversity, including the genotype-phenotype mapping of chicken dwarfism, population genetics of human-mediated introgression, comparative genomics, and transcriptomics.
Avian genomics; Chicken dwarfism; bird genome and transcriptome; Bioinformatics; Population genomics; Ecology and environmental stress.
Research experience: Whole-genome sequence data, RNA-seq data,and genome editing techniques (CRISPR-Cas9).
My passion and interest are growing in bioinformatics to develop bioinformatic pipelines, understanding the function of the genome; using genomics to study the demographic history of domesticated populations; and how gene regulation in response to changing climate in free-living birds. I am a person full of curiosity, which makes me enthusiastic about new ideas. :metal:
Links
Highlights
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Identified a novel loss-of-function mutation in TMEM263 to be associated with dwarfism.
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Identified the genetic variants underlying dwarfism in Dutch indigenous chicken breeds. For the first time in avian species, discovered the widly recognized gene that is responsible for body size (HMGA2).
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Using haploytpe-based approch (rIBD) to identify the hybridization and selection history of small chicken populations.
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Generated the high-quality reference genome assembly for a free-living bird (Zonotrichia leucophrys).
Publications
(# denotes corresponding authors)
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2024 - A chromosome-level genome assembly of a free-living white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii). Scientific Data 11, 86 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-02929-6 Zhou Wu#, Katarzyna Miedzinska, Jesse S. Krause, Jonathan H. Pérez, John C. Wingfield, Simone L. Meddle & Jacqueline Smith
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2023 - Fourth report on chicken genes and chromosomes 2022. Cytogenetic and genome research, 2022 https://karger.com/cgr/article-pdf/162/8-9/405/3975130/000529376.pdf Jacqueline Smith#, James M Alfieri, Nick Anthony, Peter Arensburger,… Zhou Wu, …, Huaijun Zhou
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2023 - Genomic insight into the influence of selection, crossbreeding, and geography on population structure in poultry. Genetics Selection Evolution, 2023 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12711-022-00775-x.pdf Zhou Wu#, Mirte Bosse, Christina M Rochus, Martien AM Groenen, Richard PMA Crooijmans
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2021 - Deleterious mutations in the tpo gene associated with familial thyroid follicular cell carcinoma in dutch german longhaired pointers. Genes, 2021 https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12070997 Yun Yu, Henk Bovenhuis, Zhou Wu, Kimberley Laport, Martien AM Groenen, Richard PMA Crooijmans
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2021 - Time Course Transcriptomic Study Reveals the Gene Regulation During Liver Development and the Correlation With Abdominal Fat Weight in Chicken.
Frontiers in Genetics, 2021 https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.723519 Siyuan Xing, Ranran Liu, Guiping Zhao, Martien AM Groenen, Ole Madsen, Lu Liu, Maiqing Zheng, Qiao Wang, Zhou Wu, Richard PMA Crooijmans, Jie Wen -
2020 - Heterogeneity of a dwarf phenotype in Dutch traditional chicken breeds revealed by genomic analyses.
Evol. Appl. doi: 10.1111/eva.13183 Zhou Wu#, Chiara Bortoluzzi, Martijn F.L. Derks, Langqing Liu, Mirte Bosse, Sipke Joost Hiemstra, Martien A.M. Groenen, and Richard P.M.A. Crooijmans -
2020 - Genome Wide Association Study and Transcriptome Differential Expression Analysis of the Feathering Rate in Shouguang Chickens.
Front. Genet. 11:613078. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.613078 Xiayi Liu, Zhou Wu, Junying Li, Haigang Bao# and Changxin Wu -
2018 - A novel loss-of-function variant in transmembrane protein 263 (TMEM263) of autosomal dwarfism in chicken. Front. Genet. 9:193. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2018.00193 Zhou Wu, Martijn FL Derks, Bert Dibbits, Hendrik-Jan Megens, Martien AM Groenen, Richard PMA Crooijmans#
Education background
- PhD Wageningen University and Rsearch, the Netherlands
- MSc China Agricultural University, China
- BSc China Agricultural University, China