Chung-Jui Tsai
Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
Ph.D. (1995) Michigan Technological University
Phone: 906-487-2914
Email: chtsai@mtu.edu
See my Laboratory Home Page

Research Interests
Research projects in my lab center around the theme of dissecting molecular mechanisms underpinning tree fitness and biomass productivity. I am particularly interested in phenolic metabolism as it impacts tree development and defense, wood quality and ecosystem function. My research and teaching scales gene to tree, laboratory to habitat, and basic research to industrial utilization and ecosystem investigation.

  • Oakley R.V., Wang Y.-S., Ramakrishna W., Harding S.A., and C.-J. Tsai. 2007. Differential expansion and expression of alpha- and beta-tubulin gene families in Populus. Plant Physiology 145: 961-973.
  • Busov V. and C.-J. Tsai. 2007. Perennial challenges and opportunities. New Phytologist 176: 3-6.
  • Rajinikanth M., Harding S.A. and C.-J. Tsai. 2007. The glycine decarboxylase complex multienzyme family in Populus. Journal of Experimental Botany 58: 1761-1770.
  • Lin J., Gunter L.E., Harding S.A., Kopp R.F., McCord R.P., Tsai C.-J., Tuskan G.A. and L.B. Smart. 2007. Development of AFLP and RAPD markers linked to a locus associated with twisted growth in corkscrew willow (Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa'). Tree Physiology 27: 1575-1583.
  • Tiimonen H., Häggman H., Tsai C.-J., Chiang V. and T. Aronen. 2007. The seasonal activity and the effect of mechanical bending and wounding on the PtCOMT promoter in Betula pendula Roth. Plant Cell Reports 26: 1205-1214.
  • Tsai C.-J., El Kayal W. and S.A. Harding. 2006. Populus, the new model system for investigating phenylpropanoid complexity. International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering 4: 221-233.
  • Brodeur-Campbell S.E., Vucetich J.A., Richter D.L., Waite T.A., Rosemier J.N. and C.-J. Tsai. 2006. Insect herbivory on low-lignin transgenic aspen. Environmental Entomology 35: 1696-1701.
  • Populus Genome Consortium (1 of 110 authors). 2006. The genome of black cottonwood, Populus trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray). Science 313: 1596-1604.
  • Tsai C.-J., Harding S.A., Tschaplinski T.J., Lindroth R.L. and Y. Yuan. 2006. Genome-wide analysis of the structural genes regulating defense phenylpropanoid metabolism in Populus. New Phytologist 172: 47-62.
  • Harding S.A., Jiang H., Jeong M.L., Casado F.L., Lin H.-W. and C.-J. Tsai. 2005. Functional genomics analysis of foliar condensed tannin and phenolic glycoside regulation in natural cottonwood hybrids. Tree Physiology 25: 1475-1486.
  • Ho C.-K., Chang S.-H., Lung J., Tsai C.-J. and K. Chen. 2005. The strategies to increase taxol production by using Taxus mairei cells transformed with TS and DBAT genes. International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering 3: 179-185.
  • Jeong M.L., Jiang H., Chen H.-S., Tsai C.-J. and S.A. Harding. 2004. Metabolic profiling the sink to source transition in developing leaves of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides). Plant Physiology 136: 3364-3375.
  • Tsai C.-J. and S.L. Hubscher. 2004. Cryopreservation in Populus functional genomics. New Phytologist 164: 73-81.
  • Ranjan P., Kao Y.-Y., Jiang H., Joshi C.P., Harding S.A. and C.-J. Tsai. 2004. Suppression subtractive hybridization-mediated transcriptome analysis from multiple tissues of aspen (Populus tremuloides) trees altered in phenylpropanoid metabolism. Planta 219: 694-704.
  • Jiang H., Deng Y., Chen H.-S., Tao L., Sha Q., Chen J., Tsai C.-J. and S. Zhang. 2004. Joint analysis of two microarray gene-expression data sets to select lung adenocarcinoma marker genes. BMC Bioinformatics 5: 81.
  • Wang Y.-S., Harding S.A. and C.-J. Tsai. 2004. Expression of a glycine decarboxylase complex H-protein in non-photosynthetic tissues of Populus tremuloides. Biochimica Biophysica Acta 1676: 267-273.
  • Kao Y.-Y., Harding S.A. and C.-J. Tsai. 2002. Differential expression of two distinct phenylalanine ammonia-lyase genes in condensed tannin-accumulating and lignifying cells of quaking aspen. Plant Physiology 130: 796-807.
  • Touchell D.H., Chiang V.L. and C.-J. Tsai. 2002. Cryopreservation of embryogenic cultures of Picea mariana (black spruce) using vitrification. Plant Cell Reports 21:118-124.
  • Harding S.A., Leshkevich J., Chiang V.L. and C.-J. Tsai. 2002. Differential substrate inhibition couples kinetically distinct 4-coumarate:CoA ligases with spatially distinct metabolic roles in quaking aspen. Plant Physiology 128: 428-438.
  • Hu W.-J., Harding S.A., Lung J., Popko J.L., Ralph J., Stokke D.D., Tsai C.-J. and V.L. Chiang. 1999. Repression of lignin biosynthesis promotes cellulose accumulation and growth in transgenic trees. Nature Biotechnology 17: 808-812.
  • Tsai C.-J., Popko J.L., Mielke M.R., Hu W.-J., Podila G.K. and V.L. Chiang. 1998. Suppression of O-methyltransferase gene by homologous sense transgene in quaking aspen causes red-brown wood phenotypes. Plant Physiology 117: 101-112.
  • Hu W.-J., Kawaoka A., Tsai C.-J., Lung J., Osakabe K., Ebinuma H. and V.L. Chiang. 1998. Compartmentalized expression of two structurally and functionally distinct 4-coumaric acid:coenzyme A ligase (4CL) genes in aspen (Populus tremuloides). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 95: 5407-5412.
  • Ho C.-K., Chang S.-H., Tsay J.-Y., Tsai C.-J., Chiang V.L. and Z.Z. Chen. 1998. Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation of Eucalyptus camaldulensis and production of transgenic plants. Plant Cell Reports 17: 675 680.
  • Li L., Popko J.L., Zhang X.-H., Osakabe K., Tsai C.-J., Joshi C.P. and V.L. Chiang. 1997. A novel multifunctional O-methyltransferase implicated in a dual methylation pathway associated with lignin biosynthesis in loblolly pine. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 94: 5461-5466.
  • “A genomics investigation of partitioning into and among flavonoid-derived condensed tannins for carbon sequestration in Populus”, DOE
  • “A functional genomics approach to investigate regulation of phenolic glycosides metabolism in Populus”, NSF