Zhihua Hua

Zhihua Hua is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology within the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio University. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of ubiquitylation in plants, particularly its role in development, stress response, and genome evolution. He leads the Plant Ubiquitylation Laboratory and integrates computational, evolutionary, and experimental approaches in his work.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Plant Physiology, Pennsylvania State University, 2008

His research interests center on the ubiquitin-26S proteasome system (UPS), gene regulatory networks, F-box protein evolution, and the interplay between autophagy and proteasomal degradation. He applies high-throughput sequencing, machine learning, and molecular biology to study these processes in Arabidopsis thaliana and rice. His lab has developed bioinformatics tools such as CTT and CTTdocker for genome-wide superfamily gene annotation.

The most recent publications highlight a strong trend in understanding how ubiquitylation regulates plant development and stress adaptation, with increasing integration of computational and systems biology. Key themes include retrograde signaling, RNA maturation, protein degradation crosstalk, and evolutionary analysis of gene families like F-box proteins across plant genomes.

Scientific Awards:

• No awards explicitly mentioned in the text.

Zhihua Hua actively mentors graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom are co-authors on his publications. His lab has received research support enabling extensive work in plant omics, genetics, and biochemistry. He has contributed to major collaborative projects, including the Brachypodium distachyon genome sequencing initiative.

He leads the Plant Ubiquitylation Laboratory (Hua Lab), which combines wet-lab experimentation with computational genomics to dissect the roles of ubiquitin-mediated regulation in plants. The team includes graduate students, undergraduates, and visiting scholars working on diverse aspects of protein degradation and gene expression control.