NSF Career Award, 2007-2012

 Collaborative Award of University of California Riverside and Los Alamos National Lab, 2008-2009

University of California Discovery Award, 2007-2009

Interdisciplinary Research Award, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, UCR, 2007-2008

Regents’ Faculty Fellowship/Faculty Development Award, 2004, 2006

NSF Travel Award, Keystone Symposia, 2002

EMBO Fellowship, European Molecular Biology Organization, 1999

Excellent Performance Award, John Innes Center, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, UK, 1997

Excellent Ph.D. Dissertation Award, Beckman Instruments, Inc., China Office, 1995

Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1992 and 1995

My laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of small RNA-mediated gene regulation in plant disease resistance and defense responses. Small RNAs, including microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), have emerged as important regulators of eukaryotic gene expression by guiding mRNA cleavage, translational inhibition or chromatin modification. siRNA-induced gene silencing is a conserved regulatory process that has evolved as an antiviral defense mechanism in plants and animals. However, it is not known whether host cells also use siRNAs as an antibacterial or antifungal defense mechanism in eukaryotes.

The discovery of a bacteria-induced Arabidopsis siRNA in my lab provided the first example of the regulatory role of siRNAs in bacterial resistance and plant immunity. Functional analysis of the siRNA target identified a putative negative regulator of the resistance gene RPS2 signaling pathway. This study suggests a broader role forsiRNAs in host-defense mechanisms.The goal of my research is to identify and characterize pathogen-inducible endogenous small RNAs and understand their regulatory mechanisms in gene expression reprogramming during the host defense responses. We aim to identify novel signaling components within disease resistance network and to elucidate the crosstalk between multiple signal transduction pathways. A combination of functional genomics, molecular genetics and biochemical approaches are applied.

1. Padmanabhan Chellappan, Xiaoming Zhang and Hailing Jin*: Host small RNAs are big contributors in plant innate immunity. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 2009, in press.

2.  He XJ, Hsu YF, Zhu S, Wierzbicki AT, Pontes O, Pikaard CS, Liu HL, Wang CS, Jin H, Zhu JK. An Arabidopsis homolog of the transcription elongation factor SPT5 is a novel RNA-binding protein that interacts with ARGONAUTE 4 and is required for RNA-directed DNA methylation. Cell 2009,137 (3):498-508.

3.  Iida K, Jin H, Zhu, JK. Bioinformatics analysis suggests base modifications of tRNAs and miRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana. BMC Genomics 2009, 10:155.

4.  Xuefeng Zhou, Ramanjulu Sunkar, Hailing Jin, Jian-Kang Zhu and Weixiong Zhang: Small RNAs generated from natural antisense transcripts in Oryza sativa. Genome Research, 2009, 19, 70-78.

5.  Padmanabhan Chellappan and Hailing Jin*: Discovery of plant microRNAs and short-interfering RNAs by deep parallel sequencing. Methods in Molecular Biology, 2009, 495, 121-132.

6. Ni Li, Carolyn Jablonowski, Hailing Jin and Wenwan Zhong: Stand-Alone Rolling Circle Amplification Combined with Capillary Electrophoresis for Specific Detection of Small RNA. Analytical Chemistry 2009. DOI: 10.1021/ac900578a.

7. Hailing Jin* (co-corresponding author), Vladimir Vacic, Thomas Girke, Stefano Lonardi and Jian-Kang Zhu: Small RNAs and the regulation of cis-natural antisense transcripts in Arabidopsis. BMC Molecular Biology, 2008, 9:6. doi:10.1186/1471-2199-9-6.

8.   Hailing Jin*: Endogenous Small RNAs And Antibacterial Immunity in Plants. FEBS Letters, 2008, 582 (18), 2679-84.

9. Wen-Xue Li, Youko Oono, Jianhua Zhu, Xin-Jian He, Jian-Min Wu, Iida Kei, Xiao-Yan Lu, Xinping Cui, Hailing Jin and Jian-Kang Zhu: Transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of a transcription factor important for drought resistance in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell, 2008, 20(8):2238-51.

10. Surekha Katiyar-Agarwal, Shang Gao, Adam Vivian-Smith and Hailing Jin*: A novel class of bacteria-induced small RNAs in Arabidopsis. Genes & Development 2007, 21, 3123-3134.

11. Katiyar-Agarwal S, Morgan R, Dahlbeck D, Borsani O, Villegas A Jr, Zhu JK, Staskawicz B, Jin H.* 2006. A pathogen-inducible endogenous siRNA in plant immunity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 1802-18007.

12. Surekha Katiyar-Agarwal and Hailing Jin*: Discovery of Pathogen-Regulated Small RNAs in Plants. Methods in Enzymology, 2007, 427, 215-227.

13.  Vladimir Vacic, Hailing Jin, Jian-Kang Zhu and Stefano Lonard: A probabilistic method for small RNA flowgram matching. Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, 2008, 13, 75-86.

14. Kim Baumann, Maria Perez-Rodriguez, Desmond Bradley, Julien Venail, Paul Bailey, Hailing Jin, Ronald Koes, Keith Roberts and Cathie Martin: Control of cell and petal morphogenesis by R2R3 MYB transcription factors. Development 2007, 134, 1691-1701.

15. Hailing Jin* (corresponding author), Songtao Li and Andy Villegas Jr.: Down Regulation of 26S Proteasome Subunit RPN9 Inhibits Viral Systemic Transport and Alters Plant Vascular Development. Plant Physiology, 2006, 142, 651-661.

16. Hailing Jin: Viral systemic movement and plant vascular development. Biology of Plant-Microbe Interactions, Volume 5. Published by International Society for Molecular-Microbe Interactions. St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. 2006, p423-426.

17. Rojo E, M.R., Carter C, Zouhar J, Pan S, Plotnikova J, Jin H, Paneque M, Sanchez-Serrano JJ,  Baker B, Ausubel FM, Raikhel NV. VPEgamma Exhibits a Caspase-like Activity that Contributes to Defense against Pathogens. Current Biology, 2004. 14(21): p. 1897-906.

18. Gianinna Brigneti, Ana M. Martín-Hernández, Hailing Jin, Judy Chen, David C. Baulcombe, Barbara Baker and Jonathan D.G. Jones. Virus-Induced Gene Silencing in Solanum Species. The Plant Journal. 2004, 39, 264-272.

19. Ronning, C.M., S. Stegalkina, R. Ascenzi, O. Bougri, A. Hart, T. Utterbach, S. Vanaken, S.,  Riedmuller, J. White, J. Cho, G. Pertea, Y. Lee, S. Karamycheva, R. Sultana, J. Tsai, J. Quackenbush, K. Myers, S. Restrepo, C. Smart, W. Fry, R. van der Hoeven, S. Tanksley, P. Zhang, H. Jin, M. Yamamoto, B. Baker, and C.R. Buell. Comparative Analyses of Potato Expressed Sequence Tag Libraries. Plant Physiology 2003, 131(2):419-429.

20. Jin, H., M.J. Axtell, D. Dahlbeck, O. Ekwenna, S. Zhang, B. Staskawicz, and B. Baker: NPK1, an MEKK1-like mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase, regulates innate immunity and development in plants. Developmental Cell 2002, 3(2):291-297.

21. Cathie Martin, Kiran Bhatt, Kim Baumann, Hailing Jin, Sabine Zachgo, Keith Roberts, Zsuzsanna Schwarz-Sommer, Beverley Glover and Maria Perez-Rodrigues: The mechanics of cell fate determination in petals. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2002, 357: 809-813.

22. Jin, H., Y. Liu, K.-Y. Yang, C.-Y. Kim, B..Baker, and S. Zhang. Function of a mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway in N gene-mediated resistance in tobacco. The Plant Journal 2003, 33:719-731.

23. Liu, Y., H. Jin, K.-Y. Yang , C.-Y. Kim, B. Baker, and S. Zhang: Interaction between two mitogen-activated protein kinases during tobacco defense signaling. The Plant Journal 2003, 34:149-160.

24. Jin, H., E. Cominelli, P. Bailey, A. Parr, F. Mehrtens, C. Tonelli, B. Weisshaar, and C. Martin. Transcriptional repression by AtMYB4 controls production of UV-protecting sunscreens in Arabidopsis.  EMBO Journal 19:6150-6161.

25. Meissner, R., H. Jin (co-first author), E. Cominelli, M. Denekamp, et.al.  1999.  Function search in a large transcription factor gene family in Arabidopsis: Assessing the potential of reverse genetics to identify insertional mutants in R2R3 MYB genes. Plant Cell 11(10):1827-1840.

26. Kranzl, H.D., M. Denekamp, R. G., H. Jin, A. Leyva, R. Meissner, K. Petroni, A. Urzainqui,  M.Bevan, C. Martin, S. Smeekens, C. Tonelli, J. Paz-Ares, B. Weisshaar.  1998.  Towards functional characterisation of the members of the R2R3- MYB gene family from Arabidopsis thaliana.  The Plant Journal 16(2): 263-276.

27. Jin, H. and C. Martin.  1999.  Multifunctionality and diversity within the plant MYB-gene family. Plant Mol Biol. 41(5):577-585.

28. SONG Ren-tao, LI Jie, JIN Hailing, ZHANG Qing-qi and XU Zheng-kai: How the sequences of ribozyme and substrate affect the function of the ribozyme. ACTA Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica. 1997, Vol.29(1): 61-67.

29. JIN Hailing, ZHANG Qing-qi, SHONG Ren-tao and XU Zheng-kai: The construction and complementary expression of two TMV defective particles in tobacco.  ACTA Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica. 1996, 28(24): 358-366.

30. JIN Hailing, SHANG Hui-shen, ZHANG Qing-qi and XU Zheng-kai: Cloning and expression of an antifreeze peptide gene of Winter Flounder in E.coli. ACTA Biologiae Experimentalis Sinica. 1995, 28(1): 77-83.

31. LI Jie, JIN Hailing, ZHANG Qing-qi, Song Ren-tao and XU Zheng-kai: Specific cleavage of two target sequences of tobacco mosaic virus RNA by a dirocomponent ribozyme. Chinese Journal of Biotechnology (Allerton Press). 1995, 11(1): 27-35.