Publications (as of May 2022)

McClung, D. J., Du, Y., Antonich, D. J., Bonet, B., Zhang, W., Traxler, M. F. "Harnessing Rare Actinomycete Interactions and Intrinsic Antimicrobial Resistance Enables Discovery of an Unusual Metabolic Inhibitor." mBio. 2022. Link

Gu, D., Zhang, W. "Chapter Fifteen - Engineered biosynthesis of alkyne-tagged polyketides." Meth. Enzymol. 2022, Volume 665, 347-373. Link

Del Rio Flores, A., Kastner, D. W., Du, Y., Narayanamoorthy, M., Shen, S., Cai, W., Vennelakanti, V., Zill, N. A., Dell, L. B., Zhai, R., Kulik, H. J., Zhang, W. "Probing the Mechanism of Isonitrile Formation by a Non-Heme Iron(II)-Dependent Oxidase/Decarboxylase." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 13, 5893-5901. Link Selected as JACS Cover

Del Rio Flores, A., Barber, C. C., Narayanamoorthy, M., Gu, D., Shen, Y., Zhang, W. "Biosynthesis of Isonitrile- and Alkyne-Containing Natural Products." Annu. Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng. 2022, 13:1.1–1.24.Link

Del Rio Flores, A., Twigg, F. F., Du, Y., Cai, W., Aguirre, D. Q., Sato, M., Dror, M. J., Narayanamoorthy, M., Geng, J., Zill, N. A., Zhai, R., Zhang, W. "Biosynthesis of triacsin featuring an N-hydroxytriazene pharmacophore." Nat. Chem. Biol. 2021, 17, 1305-1313. Link
Recommended on Faculty Opinions

Li, Z., Sun, J., Du, Y., Pan, A., Zeng, L., Maboudian, R., Burne, R., Qian, P., Zhang, W. "Mutanofactin promotes adhesion and biofilm formation of cariogenic Streptococcus mutans." Nat. Chem. Biol. 2021, 17, 576-584. Link Highlight in Nature Highlight in Nat. Chem. Biol. Recommended on Faculty Opinions

Barber, C., Zhang, W. "Small molecule natural products in human nasal/oral microbiota." J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 2021, 48, kuab010, DOI: 10.1093/jimb/kuab010. Link

Jonnalagadda, R., Del Rio Flores, A., Cai, W., Mehmood, R., Narayanamoorthy, M., Ren, C., Zaragoza, J., Kulik, H., Zhang, W., Drennan, C. "Biochemical and crystallographic investigations into isonitrile formation by a non-heme iron-dependent oxidase/decarboxylase." J. Biol. Chem. 2021, 296, 100231. Link

Li, J., Du, Y., Gu, D., Cai, W., Green, A., Ng, S., Leung, A., Del Rio Flores, A., Zhang, W. "Discovery and biosynthesis of clostyrylpyrones from the obligate anaerobe Clostridium roseum." Org. Lett. 2020, 22, 21, 8204-8209. Link

Porterfield, W., Zhang, W. "6.15 - Mutasynthesis for Natural Product Bioengineering." In: Comprehensive Natural Products III: Chemistry and Biology. Eds Tadhg Begley and Ben Liu. Elsevier, 2020, 6, 336-351. Link

Zou, L., Spanogiannopoulos, P., Pieper, L.M., Chien, H-C., Cai, W., Khuri, N., Pottel, J., Vora, B., Ni, Z., Tsakalozou, E., Zhang, W., Shoichet, B.K., Giacomini, K.M., Turnbaugh, P.J. "Bacterial metabolism rescues the inhibition of intestinal drug absorption by food and drug additives." PNAS. 2020, 117, 27, 16009-16018. Link

Xu, P., Modavi, C., Demaree, B., Twigg, F., Liang, B., Sun, C., Zhang, W., Abate, A. "Microfluidic automated plasmid library enrichment for biosynthetic gene cluster discovery." Nucleic Acids Res. 2020, 48, 8, e48. Link

Li, J., Barber, C., Herman, N., Cai, W., Zafrir, E., Du, Y., Zhu, X., Skyrud, W., Zhang, W. "Investigation of secondary metabolism in the industrial butanol hyper-producer Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4." J. Ind. Microbiol. & Biot. 2020, 47, 319-328. Link

Porterfield, W., Poenateetai, N., Zhang, W. "Engineered Biosynthesis of Alkyne-tagged Polyketides by Type I PKSs." iScience. 2020, 23, 100938. Link Highlight in Trends in Biotechnology

Skyrud, W., Del Rio Flores, A., Zhang, W. "Biosynthesis of Cyclohexanecarboxyl-CoA Highlights a Promiscuous Shikimoyl-CoA Synthetase and a FAD-Dependent Dehydratase." ACS Catal. 2020, 10, 5, 3360-3364. Link

Huang, Y., Cai, W., Del Rio Flores, A., Twigg, F. F., Zhang, W. "Facile Discovery and Quantification of Isonitrile Natural Products via Tetrazine-Based Click Reactions." Anal. Chem. 2020, 92, 1, 599-602. Link

Hu, Z., Zhang, W. "Signaling Natural Products from Human Pathogenic Bacteria." ACS Infect. Dis. 2020, 6, 1, 25-33. Link

Zhang, B., Rajakovich, L., Cura, D., Blaesi, E., Mitchell, A., Tysoe, C., Zhu, X., Streit, B., Rui, Z., Zhang, W., Boal, A., Krebs, C., Bollinger, J. M. "Substrate-triggered Formation of a Peroxo-Fe2(III/III) Intermediate during Fatty Acid Decarboxylation by UndA." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 37, 14510-14514. Link

Richards, J., Cai, W., Zill, N., Zhang, W., Ojha, A. "Adaption of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to biofilm growth is genetically linked to drug tolerance." Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 2019, 63, 11, e01213-19. Link

Li, Z., Li, J., Cai, W., Lai, J. Y. H., McKinnie, S. M. K., Zhang, W., Moore, B. S., Zhang, W., Qian, P. "Macrocyclic colibactin induces DNA double-strand breaks via copper-mediated oxidative cleavage." Nat. Chem. 2019, 11, 880-889. Link

Seidel, J., Miao, Y., Porterfield, W., Cai, W., Zhu, X., Kim, S., Hu, F., Bhattarai-Kline, S., Min, W., Zhang, W. "Structure-activity-distribution relationship study of anti-cancer antimycin-type depsipetides." Chem. Commun. 2019, 55, 9379-9382. Link

Twigg, F. F., W. Cai, W. Huang, J. Liu, M. Sato, T. J. Perez, J. Geng, M. J. Dror, I. Montanez, T. L. Tong, H. Lee, and W. Zhang. "Identifying the Biosynthetic Gene Cluster for Triacsins with an N-hydroxytriazene Moiety." ChemBioChem. 2019, 20, 1145-1149. (VIP, ChemBioTalents) Link

Su, M., X. Zhu, and W. Zhang. "Probing the Acyl Carrier Protein-Enzyme Interactions Within Terminal Alkyne Biosynthetic Machinery." AIChE J. 2018, 64, 4255-4262. (TRIBUTE TO FOUNDERS: JAY BAILEY) Link

Li, J. S., C. C. Barber, and W. Zhang. "Natural products from anaerobes." J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 2019, 46, 375-383. Link

Harris, N., D. Born, W. Cai, Y. Huang, J. Martin, R. Khalaf, C. Drennan, and W. Zhang. "Isonitrile Formation by a Non-heme Iron(II)-Dependent Oxidase/Decarboxylase." Angew. Chem. 2018, 57, 9707-9710. (VIP) Link

Skyrud, W., Liu, J., Thankachan, D., Cabrera, M., Seipke, R., and W. Zhang. "Biosynthesis of the 15-Membered Ring Depsipeptide Neoantimycin." ACS Chem. Biol. 2018, 13, 5, 1398-1406. Link

Liu, J., Kaganjo, J., Zhang, W., Zeilstra-Ryalls, J. "Investigating the bifunctionality of cyclizing and "classical" 5-aminolevulinate synthases." Protein Sci. 2018, 27, 2, 402-410. Link

Twigg, F., Skyrud, D., Li, J., Zhang, W. "Chapter 10: Engineering Enzymes for Natural Products Biosynthesis and Diversification." In G. Williams & Melanie Hall (Eds), Modern Biocatalysis: Advances Towards Synthetic Biological Systems. 2018, 261-286. Link

Zhu, X. and Zhang, W. "Terminal Alkyne Biosynthesis in Marine Microbes." Methods Enzymol. 2018, 604, 89-112. Link

Cai, W. and Zhang, W. "Engineering modular polyketide synthases for production of biofuels and industrial chemicals." Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 2018, 50, 32-38 Link

Herman, N. A., Kim, S., Li, J. S., Cai, W., Koshino, H., Zhang, W. "The industrial anaerobe Clostridium acetobutylicum uses polyketides to regulate cellular differentiation." Nat. Commun. 2017, 8, 1514 Link

Harris, N. C., Sato, M., Herman, N. A., Twigg, F., Cai, W., Liu, J., Downey, J., Khalaf, R., Martin, J., Koshino, H., Zhang, W. "Biosynthesis of isonitrile lipopeptides by conserved non-ribosomal peptide synthetase gene clusters in Actinobacteria." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2017, 114, 27, 7025-7030. Link

Herman, N., Li, J., Bedi, R., Turchi, B., Liu, X., Miller, M., Zhang, W. "Development of a high-efficiency transformation method and implementation of rational metabolic engineering for the industrial butanol hyper-producer Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum strain N1-4." Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2017, 83, 2, e02942-16. Link

Herman, N., Zhang, W. "Enzymes for fatty-acid based hydrocarbon biosynthesis." Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 2016, 35, 22-28. Link

Zhu, X., Shieh, P., Su, M., Bertozzi, C., Zhang, W. "A fluorogenic screening platform enables directed evolution of an alkyne biosynthetic tool." Chem. Commun. 2016, 52, 11239-11242. Link

Liu, J., Zhu, X., Kim, S., Zhang, W. "Antimycin-type depsipeptides: discovery, biosynthesis, chemical synthesis, and bioactivities." Nat. Prod. Rep. 2016, 33, 1146-1165. Link

Rui, Z., Zhang, W. "Combining genome mining and biosynthesis research to discover bioactive natural products and new targets for medicinal chemistry" Curr. Top. Med. Chem. 2016, 16, 1643-1644. (Editorial) Link

Rui, Z., Zhang, W."Engineering biosynthesis of non-ribosomal peptides and polyketides by directed evolution" Curr. Top. Med. Chem. 2016, 16, 1755-1762. Link

Liu, J., Zhang, W. "Recent advances in understanding and engineering polyketide synthesis." F1000 Faculty Rev. 2016, 5. Link

Rui, Z., Harris, N. C., Zhu, X., Huang, W., Zhang, W. "Discovery of a family of desaturase-like enzymes for 1-alkene biosynthesis." ACS Catal. 2015, 5, 7091-7094. Link

Huang, W., Kim, S., Liu, J., Zhang, W. "Identification of the polyketide biosynthetic machinery for the indolizidine alkaloid cyclizidine." Org. Lett. 2015, 17, 5344-5347. Link

Liu, J., Zhu, X., Zhang, W. "Identifying the minimal enzymes required for biosynthesis of epoxyketone proteasome inhibitors." ChemBioChem. 2015, 16, 2585-2589. Link

Zhu, X., Su, M., Manickam, K., Zhang, W. "Bacterial genome mining of enzymatic tools for alkyne biosynthesis." ACS Chem. Biol. 2015, 10, 2785-2793. Link

Rui, Z., Huang, W., Xu, F., Han, M., Liu, X., Lin, S., Zhang, W. "Sparsomycin biosynthesis highlights unusual module architecture and processing mechanism in non-ribosomal peptide synthetase." ACS Chem. Biol. 2015, 10, 1765-1769. Link

Zhu, X., Zhang, W. "Tagging polyketides/non-ribosomal peptides with a clickable functionality and applications." Front. Chem. 2015, 3: 11. Link

Zhu, X., Liu, J., Zhang, W. "De novo biosynthesis of terminal alkyne-labeled natural products." Nat. Chem. Biol. 2015, 11, 115-120. Link News and Views NCB's Greatest hits

Rui, Z., Li, X., Zhu, X., Liu, J., Domigan, B., Barr, I., Cate, J. H. D., Zhang, W. "Microbial biosynthesis of medium-chain 1-alkenes by a non-heme iron oxidase." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2014, 111, 18237-18242. Link Highlight in Angew. Chem.

Liu, J., Zhu, X., Seipke, R. F., Zhang, W. “Biosynthesis of antimycins with a reconstituted 3-formamidosalicylate pharmacophore in Escherichia coli.” ACS Synth. Biol. 2015, 4, 559-565. Link

Liu, J., Ng, T., Rui, Z., Ad, O., Zhang, W. “Unusual acetylation-dependent reaction cascade in the biosynthesis of the pyrroloindole drug physostigmine.” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2014, 53, 136-139. Link

Sandy, M., Zhu, X., Rui, Z., Zhang, W. “Characterization of AntB, a promiscuous acyltransferase involved in antimycin biosynthesis.” Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 3396-3399. Link

Rui, Z., Sandy, M., Jung, B., Zhang, W. "Tandem enzymatic oxygenations in biosynthesis of epoxyquinone pharmacophore of manumycin-type metabolites." Chem. Biol. 2013, 20, 859-860. Link

Sandy, M., Rui, Z., Gallagher, J., Zhang, W. “Enzymatic synthesis of dilactone scaffold of antimycins.” ACS Chem. Biol. 2012, 7, 1956-1961. Link

Rui, Z., Ye, M., Wang, S., Fujikawa, K., Akerele, B., Aung, M., Floss, H., Zhang, W., Yu, T. “Insights into a divergent phenazine biosynthetic pathway governed by a plasmid-born esmeraldin gene cluster.” Chem. Biol. 2012, 19, 1116-1125. Link

Walsh, C. T., Zhang, W. “Chemical logic and enzymatic machinery for biological assembly of peptidyl nucleoside antibiotics.” ACS Chem. Bio. 2011, 6, 1000-1007. Link

2006 to 2011

Ames, B. D., Lee, M. Y., Moody, C. L., Zhang, W., Tang, Y., Tsai, S. C. “Structural and biochemical characterization of ZhuI aromatase/cyclase from the R1128 polyketide pathway.” Biochemistry 2011, 50, 8392-8406. Link

Zhang, W., Ntai, I., Kelleher, N. L., Walsh, C. T. “tRNA-dependent peptide bond formation by the transferase PacB in biosynthesis of the pacidamycin group of pentapeptidyl nucleoside antibiotics.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2011, 108, 12249-12253. Link

Zhang, W., Ames, B. D., Walsh, C. T. “Identification of phenylalanine 3-hydroxylase for meta-tyrosine biosynthesis.” Biochemistry 2011, 50, 5401-5403. Link

Zhang, W., Ntai, I., Bolla, M. L., Malcolmson, S. J., Kahne, D., Kelleher, N. L., Walsh, C. T. “Nine enzymes are required for assembly of the pacidamycin group of peptidyl nucleoside antibiotics” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 5240-5243. Link

Qiao, K., Zhou, H., Xu, W., Zhang, W., Garg, N., Tang, Y. “A fungal nonribosomal peptide synthetase module that can synthesize thiopyrazines” Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 1758-1761. Link

Zhang, W., Heemstra, J. R., Walsh, C. T., Imker H. J. “Activation of the pacidamycin PacL adenylation domain by MbtH-like proteins” Biochemistry 2010, 49, 9946-9947. Link

Zhang, W., Ostash, B., Walsh, C. T. “Identification of the biosynthetic gene cluster for the pacidamycin group of peptidyl nucleoside antibiotics” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2010, 107, 16828-16833. Link

Zhang, W., Bolla, M. L., Kahne, D., Walsh, C. T. “A three enzyme pathway for 2-amino-3-hydroxycyclopent-2-enone formation and incorporation in natural product biosynthesis” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 6402-6411. Link

Yan, M., Du, J., Gu, Z., Liang, M., Hu, Y.,Zhang, W., Priceman, S., Wu, L., Segura, T., Liu, Z., Tang, Y., Lu, Y. “A novel protein delivery platform based on single protein nanocapsules.” Nat. Nanotech. 2010, 5, 48-53. Link

Zhang, W., Tang, Y.  “In vitro Analysis of Type II PKS” Methods in Enzymology: microbial natural product biosynthesis, 2009, 459, 367-393. Link

Zhang, W., Ferreira, . P., Tang, Y. "Regulation of Secondary Metabolism Biosynthesis" In Smolke, C.D. (Ed.) The Metabolic Pathway Engineering Handbook: Tools and Applications. CRC Press. 2009. Link

Gao, X., Xie, X., Pashkov, I., Sawaya, R. M., Laidmen, J., Zhang, W., Cacho, R., Yeates, T. O., Tang, Y. “Directed evolution and structural characterization of a simvastatin synthase.” Chem. Biol. 2009, 16, 1064-1074. Link

Wang, P.*,Zhang, W.*, Zhan, J., Tang, Y. “Identification of OxyE as an ancillary oxygenase during tetracycline biosynthesis.” ChemBioChem, 2009, 10, 1554-1550. (*Equal contribution) Link

Zhang, W., Li, Y., Tang, Y. “Engineered biosynthesis of bacterial aromatic polyketides in Escherichia coli” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2008, 105, 20683-20685. Link

Zhang, W., Watanabe, K., Cai, X., Jung, M. E., Tang, Y., Zhan, J. “Identifying the minimal enzymes required for anhydrotetracycline biosynthesis” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 6068-6069. Link

Ames, B., Korman, T.,Zhang, W., Vu, T., Tang, Y., Tsai, S-C. “Crystal structure and functional analysis of tetracenomycin ARO/CYC: implication for cyclization specificity of aromatic polyketides” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2008, 105, 5349-5354. Link

Zhang, W., Tang, Y. “Combinatorial biosynthesis of natural products” J. Med. Chem. 2008, 51, 2629-2633. Link

Zhu, X., Zhang, W., Xiao, H., Huang, J., Li, G. “Electrochemical study of a hemin-DNA complex and its activity as a ligand binder” Electrochim. Acta 2008, 53, 4407-4413. Link

Ma, S. M.*, Zhan, J., Xie, X., Watanabe, K., Tang, Y., Zhang, W* “Redirecting the cyclization steps of fungal polyketide synthase” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 130, 38-39.  (*Equal contribution) Link

Zhang, W., Wilke, B. I., Zhan, J., Watanabe, K., Boddy, C. N., Tang, Y. “A new mechanism for benzopyrone formation in aromatic polyketide biosynthesis” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 9304-9305. Link

Zhang, W., Watanabe, K., Wang, C. C. C., Tang, Y. “Investigation of early tailoring reactions in the oxytetracycline biosynthetic pathway” J. Biol. Chem. 2007, 282, 25717-25725. Link

Ma, S. M., Zhan, J., Watanabe, K., Xie, X., Zhang, W., Wang, C. C. C., Tang, Y. “Enzymatic synthesis of aromatic polyketides using PKS4 from Gibberella fujikuroi” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 10642-10643. Link

Zhang, W., Watanabe, K., Wang, C. C. C., Tang, Y. “Heterologous biosynthesis of amidated polyketides with novel cyclization regioselectivity from oxytetracycline polyketide synthase” J. Nat. Prod. 2006, 69, 1633-1636. Link

Zhang, W., Tang, Y. "Engineering Starter Units in Aromatic Polyketides" In S. R. Baerson (Ed.), Polyketides: Biosynthesis, Biological Activity and Genetic Engineering. American Chemical Society. 2006. 231-245 Link

Zhang, W., Ames, B., Tsai, S-C., Tang, Y. “Engineered biosynthesis of a novel amidated polyketide, using the malonamyl-specific initiation module from the oxytetracycline polyketide synthase” Appl. Environ. Microb. 2006, 72, 2573-2580. Link

2002 to 2005

Huang, Y., Zhang, W., Xiao, H., Li, G. “An electrochemical investigation of glucose oxidase at a US nanoparticles modified electrode” Biosens. & Bioelectro. 2005, 21, 817-821. Link

Liu, X., Huang, Y., Zhang, W., Fan, G., Fan, C., Li, G. “Electrochemical investigation of redox thermodynamics of immobilized myoglobin: Ionic and ligation effects” Langmuir 2005, 21, 375-378. Link

Zhang, W., Zhou, H., Li, G., Scheer, H. “An electrochemical study of hemoglobin in water-glycerol solutions” Biophys. Chem. 2004, 111, 229-233. Link

Zhang, W., Huang, Y., Dai, H., Wang, X., Fan, C., Li, G. “Tuning the redox and enzymatic activity of glucose oxidase in layered organic films and its application in glucose biosensors” Anal. Biochem. 2004, 329, 85-90. Link

Zhang, W., Li, G. “Third-generation biosensors based on the direct electron transfer of proteins” Anal. Sci. 2004, 20, 603-609. Link

Liu, X., Zhang, W., Huang, Y., Li, G. “Enhanced electron-transfer reactivity of horseradish peroxidase in phosphatidylcholine films and its catalysis to nitric oxide” J. Biotech. 2004, 108, 145-152. Link

Sun, Z., Ma, Z., Zhang, W., Wang, X., Fan, C., Li, G. “Electrochemical investigations of baicalin and DNA-baicalin interactions” Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2004, 379, 283-286. Link

Sun, Y., Liu, X., Fan, C., Zhang, W., Li, G. “Electrochemical investigation of the chloride effect on hemoglobin” Bioelectrochemistry 2004, 64, 23-27. Link

Zhang, W., Fan, C., Sun, Y., Li, G. “An electrochemical investigation of ligand-binding abilities of film-entrapped myoglobin” Biochim. Biophys. Acta. Gen. Subj. 2003, 1623, 29-32. Link

Peng, W., Liu, X., Zhang, W., Li, G. “An electrochemical investigation of effect of ATP on hemoglobin” Biophys. Chem. 2003, 106, 267-273. Link

Fan, C., Liu, J., Zhang, W., Suzuki, I., Li, G. “Enhanced electron-transfer reactivity of cytochrome b(5) by dimethylsulfoxide and N,N'-dimethylformamide” Anal. Sci. 2002, 18, 1031-1033. Link