Lab Members

Principle Investigator

Dr. Shaobin Zhong is a Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at North Dakota State University (NDSU). He joined the faculty in 2007 as Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013 and Professor in 2019. Dr. Zhong taught Advanced Mycology from 2007-2019 and has been teaching Host-Parasite Genetics since 2020. His current research focuses on Fusarium head blight and biology of cereal fungal pathogens with research areas involving genetics and molecular mapping of host resistance genes, molecular mechanisms of fungal pathogenicity and virulence, plant-fungal interactions, and population genetics of plant fungal pathogens. Dr. Zhong received a B.S. degree and an M.S. degree in plant breeding and genetics from Nanjing Agricultural University, and a Ph.D. degree in plant pathology from North Dakota State University under the supervision of Dr. Brian Steffenson. He had postdoctoral training at the Biotechnology Institute, and the USDA-Cereal Disease Lab, University of Minnesota, in Dr. Antony M. Dean’s and Dr. Les Szabo’s laboratory, respectively. Before joining the faculty at NDSU, Dr. Zhong was an assistant professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he had teaching and research responsibilities on molecular genetics of plant-fungal interactions. He is currently assisted in laboratory, greenhouse and field research by Dr. Yueqiang (Michael) Leng and Joseph Mullins.

Research Specialist

Research area:

• Fusarium head blight in wheat

• Spot blotch in barley

• Molecular genetics of host-pathogen interaction in barley and wheat

Ph.D. Student (2021-     )

Research area:

•  Introgression of FHB resistance into spring wheat

• Molecular mapping of FHB resistance in spring wheat

Ph.D. Student (2021-     )

Research area:

•  FHB resistance in durum wheat

• Susceptibility genes in durum wheat

Ph.D. Student (2021-     )

Research area:

• Effectors in Fusarium graminearum

• Fungal transformation and gene editing

Ph.D. Student (2022-     )

Research area:

• Mapping of genes for spot blotch susceptibility

• Cloning of genes for spot blotch resistance and susceptibility