• Research Areas

    • Plant evolutionary ecology

  • CV

    Education

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    Ph.D. ETH Zurich
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    Master
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    Bachelor, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Positions

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    Project group leader, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

  • Publications

    • Li J, Halitschke R, Li D, Paetz C, Su H, Heiling S, Xu S, Baldwin IT. . ‘Controlled hydroxylations of diterpenoids allow for plant chemical defense without autotoxicity.’ Science 371, No. 6526: 255–260.
    • Ke L, Wang Y, Schäfer M, Städler T, Zeng R, Fabian J, Pulido H, De Moraes CM, Song Y, Xu S. . ‘Transcriptomic profiling reveals shared signalling networks between flower development and herbivory-induced responses in tomato.’ Frontiers in Plant Science 12: 722810. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.722810.
    • Acosta K, Appenroth KJ, Borisjuk L, Edelman M, Heinig U, Jansen MAK, Oyama T, Pasaribu B, Schubert I, Sorrels S, Sree KS, Xu S, Michael TP, Lam E. . ‘Return of the Lemnaceae: duckweed as a model plant system in the genomics and postgenomics era.’ Plant Cell koab189. doi: 10.1093/plcell/koab189.

    • Zeng X, Xu T, Ling Z, Wang Y, Li X, Xu S, Xu Q, Zha S, Qimei W, Basang Y, Dunzhu J, Yu M, Yuan H, Nyima T. . ‘An improved high-quality genome assembly and annotation of Tibetan hulless barley.’ Scientific data 7, No. 1: 139. doi: 10.1038/s41597-020-0480-0.
    • Bog M, Xu S, Himmelbach A, Brandt R, Wagner F, Appenroth K, Sree KS. . ‘Genotyping-by-Sequencing for Species Delimitation in Lemna Section Uninerves Hegelm. (Lemnaceae).’ In The Duckweed Genomes, edited by Cao XH, Fourounjian P, Wang W, 115–123. Cham. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-11045-1_11.
    • Xu S, Kreitzer C, McGale E, Lackus ND, Guo H, Köllner TG, Schuman MC, Baldwin IT, Zhou W. . ‘Allelic differences of clustered terpene synthases contribute to correlated intra-specific variation of floral and herbivory-induced volatiles in a wild tobacco.’ New Phytologist na, No. na. doi: 10.1111/nph.16739.

    • Guo H, Lackus ND, Köllner TG, Li R, Bing J, Wang Y, Baldwin IT, Xu S. . ‘Evolution of a novel and adaptive floral scent in wild tobacco.’ Molecular Biology and Evolution 2019. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msz292. [online first]
    • Ling Z, Brockmöller T, Baldwin IT, Xu S. . ‘Evolution of Alternative Splicing in Eudicots.’ Frontiers in Plant Science 10: 707. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.00707.
    • Liu Y, Wang Y, Xu S, Tang X, Zhao J, Yu C, Zhou G, He G, Xu H, Wang S, Tang Y, Fu C, Ma Y. . ‘Efficient genetic transformation and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing in Lemna aequinoctialis.’ Plant Biotechnology Journal , No. ja. doi: 10.1111/pbi.13128.
    • Xu S, Stapley J, Gablenz S, Boyer J, Appenroth KJ, Sree KS, Gershenzon J, Widmer A, Huber M. . ‘Low genetic variation is associated with low mutation rate in the giant duckweed.’ Nature Communications 10, No. 1: 1243. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09235-5.

    • Xu S, Brockmoller T, Navarro-Quezada A, Kuhl H, Gase K, Ling Z, Zhou W, Kreitzer C, Stanke M, Tang H, Lyons E, Pandey P, Pandey SP, Timmermann B, Gaquerel E, Baldwin IT. . ‘Wild tobacco genomes reveal the evolution of nicotine biosynthesis.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114, No. 23: 6133–6138. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1700073114.
    • Zhou W, Kugler A, McGale E, Haverkamp A, Knaden M, Guo H, Beran F, Yon F, Li R, Lackus N, Kollner TG, Bing J, Schuman MC, Hansson BS, Kessler D, Baldwin IT, Xu S. . ‘Tissue-specific emission of (E)-alpha-bergamotene helps resolve the dilemma when pollinators are also herbivores.’ Current biology 27, No. 9: 1336–1341. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.03.017.
    • Machado RAR, Zhou W, Ferrieri AP, Arce CCM, Baldwin IT, Xu S, Erb M. . ‘Species-specific regulation of herbivory-induced defoliation tolerance is associated with jasmonate inducibility.’ Ecology and Evolution 7, No. 11: 3703–3712. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2953.
    • Luu VT, Weinhold A, Ullah C, Dressel S, Schoettner M, Gase K, Gaquerel E, Xu S, Baldwin IT. . ‘O-Acyl sugars protect a wild tobacco from both native fungal pathogens and a specialist herbivore.’ Plant Physiology 174, No. 1: 370–386. doi: 10.1104/pp.16.01904.
    • Brockmoller T, Ling Z, Li D, Gaquerel E, Baldwin IT, Xu S. . ‘Nicotiana attenuata Data Hub (NaDH): an integrative platform for exploring genomic, transcriptomic and metabolomic data in wild tobacco.’ BMC Genomics 18, No. 1: 79. doi: 10.1186/s12864-016-3465-9.
    • Schäfer M, Brütting C, Xu S, Ling Z, Steppuhn A, Baldwin IT, Schuman MC. . ‘NaMYB8 regulates distinct, optimally distributed herbivore defense traits.’ Journal of Integrative Plant Biology 59, No. 12: 844–850. doi: 10.1111/jipb.12593.
    • Byers KJ, Xu S, Schluter PM. . ‘Molecular mechanisms of adaptation and speciation: why do we need an integrative approach?’ Molecular Ecology 26, No. 1: 277–290. doi: 10.1111/mec.13678.
    • Rogers SM, Xu S, Schluter PM. . ‘Introduction: integrative molecular ecology is rapidly advancing the study of adaptation and speciation.’ Molecular Ecology 26, No. 1: 1–6. doi: 10.1111/mec.13947.
    • Durrant M, Boyer J, Zhou W, Baldwin IT, Xu S. . ‘Evidence of an evolutionary hourglass pattern in herbivory-induced transcriptomic responses.’ New Phytologist 215, No. 3: 1264–1273. doi: 10.1111/nph.14644.
    • Wang M, Schoettner M, Xu S, Paetz C, Wilde J, Baldwin IT, Groten K. . ‘Catechol, a major component of smoke, influences primary root growth and root hair elongation through reactive oxygen species-mediated redox signaling.’ New Phytologist 213, No. 4: 1755–1770. doi: 10.1111/nph.14317.

    • Zhou W, Brockmoller T, Ling Z, Omdahl A, Baldwin IT, Xu S. . ‘Evolution of herbivore-induced early defense signaling was shaped by genome-wide duplications in Nicotiana.’ eLife 5. doi: 10.7554/eLife.19531.
    • Machado RA, Robert CA, Arce CC, Ferrieri AP, Xu S, Jimenez-Aleman GH, Baldwin IT, Erb M. . ‘Auxin is rapidly induced by herbivore attack and regulates a subset of systemic, jasmonate-dependent defenses.’ Plant Physiology 172, No. 1: 521–32. doi: 10.1104/pp.16.00940.

    • Groten K, Pahari NT, Xu S, Miloradovi vDM, Baldwin IT. . ‘Virus-induced gene silencing using tobacco rattle virus as a tool to study the interaction between Nicotiana attenuata and Rhizophagus irregularis.’ PLoS ONE 10, No. 8: e0136234. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136234.
    • Xu S, Zhou W, Baldwin IT. . ‘The rapidly evolving associations among herbivore associated elicitor-induced phytohormones in Nicotiana.’ Plant Signal and Behaviour 10, No. 7: e1035850. doi: 10.1080/15592324.2015.1035850.
    • Xu S, Schluter PM. . ‘Modeling the two-locus architecture of divergent pollinator adaptation: how variation in SAD paralogs affects fitness and evolutionary divergence in sexually deceptive orchids.’ Ecology and Evolution 5, No. 2: 493–502. doi: 10.1002/ece3.1378.
    • Ling Z, Zhou W, Baldwin IT, Xu S. . ‘Insect herbivory elicits genome-wide alternative splicing responses in Nicotiana attenuata.’ Plant Journal 84, No. 1: 228–43. doi: 10.1111/tpj.12997.
    • Xu S, Zhou W, Pottinger S, Baldwin IT. . ‘Herbivore associated elicitor-induced defences are highly specific among closely related Nicotiana species.’ BMC Plant Biology 15: 2. doi: 10.1186/s12870-014-0406-0.

    • Sedeek KE, Qi W, Schauer MA, Gupta AK, Poveda L, Xu S, Liu ZJ, Grossniklaus U, Schiestl FP, Schluter PM. . ‘Transcriptome and proteome data reveal candidate genes for pollinator attraction in sexually deceptive orchids.’ PLoS ONE 8, No. 5: e64621. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064621.
    • Breitkopf H, Schluter PM, Xu S, Schiestl FP, Cozzolino S, Scopece G. . ‘Pollinator shifts between Ophrys sphegodes populations: might adaptation to different pollinators drive population divergence?’ Journal of Evolutionary Biology 26, No. 10: 2197–208. doi: 10.1111/jeb.12216.

    • Xu S, Schluter PM, Grossniklaus U, Schiestl FP. . ‘The genetic basis of pollinator adaptation in a sexually deceptive orchid.’ PLoS Genetics 8, No. 8: e1002889. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002889.

    • Xu S, Schlüter PM, Schiestl FP. . ‘Pollinator-driven speciation in sexually deceptive orchids.’ International Journal of Ecology 2012. doi: 10.1155/2012/285081.
    • Schluter PM, Xu S, Gagliardini V, Whittle E, Shanklin J, Grossniklaus U, Schiestl FP. . ‘Stearoyl-acyl carrier protein desaturases are associated with floral isolation in sexually deceptive orchids.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108, No. 14: 5696–701. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1013313108.
    • Xu S, Schluter PM, Scopece G, Breitkopf H, Gross K, Cozzolino S, Schiestl FP. . ‘Floral isolation is the main reproductive barrier among closely related sexually deceptive orchids.’ Evolution 65, No. 9: 2606–20. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01323.x.

    • Xu S, Clark T, Zheng H, Vang S, Li R, Wong GK, Wang J, Zheng X. . ‘Gene conversion in the rice genome.’ BMC Genomics 9: 93. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-9-93.

    • Xu S, Luosang J, Hua S, He J, Ciren A, Wang W, Tong X, Liang Y, Wang J, Zheng X. . ‘High altitude adaptation and phylogenetic analysis of Tibetan horse based on the mitochondrial genome.’ Journal of Genetics and Genomics 34, No. 8: 720–9. doi: 10.1016/S1673-8527(07)60081-2.
    • Wang W, Wang C, Xu S, Chen C, Tong X, Liang Y, Dong X, Lei Y, Zheng X, Yu J, Wang J. . ‘Detection of HPV-2 and identification of novel mutations by whole genome sequencing from biopsies of two patients with multiple cutaneous horns.’ Journal of Clinic Virology 39, No. 1: 34–42. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2007.01.002.

    • Tong XM, Liang Y, Wang W, Xu SQ, Zheng XG, Wang J, Yu J. . ‘Complete sequence and gene organization of the Tibetan chicken mitochondrial genome.’ Yi Chuan 28, No. 7: 769–77.

    • Xu SQ, Yang YZ, Zhou J, Jing GE, Chen YT, Wang J, Yang HM, Wang J, Yu J, Zheng XG, Ge RL. . ‘A mitochondrial genome sequence of the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii).’ Genomics Proteomics and Bioinformatics 3, No. 1: 5–17.