Dr. Ying Zhen got her B.S. Degree in Life Sciences from Peking University and received her Ph.D. in Biology from Kansas State University. Following her Ph.D., Ying joined Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University as a postdoc in 2010, and then moved to Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at University of California Los Angeles in 2014, where she was promoted to Assistant Project Scientist in 2016. Dr. Zhen join Westlake University, School of Life Sciences as an assistant professor in December 2018. 

Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.

-T. Dobzhansky

Understanding the patterns of adaptive evolution at molecular level is one central goal in evolutionary biology. The recent advancements of high-throughput sequencing and analysis methods provide unprecedent opportunities to understand patterns of molecular adaptive evolution and test classical theories and models.

The overarching goal of Dr. Zhen's research is to understand the interplay between environmental diversity, biodiversity, and chemical diversity. She combines both experimental and computational methods to reveal underlying mechanistic principles of adaptive evolution in a variety of model and non-model biological systems. Dr. Zhen have developed novel approaches to quantify and compare the amount of adaptive evolution among different species and estimated that at least 20% of nonsynonymous substitutions between humans and chimpanzee were fixed by positive selection, much higher than previous estimates. She also found greater strength of selection and higher proportion of new beneficial amino acid changing mutations in humans compared to mice and Drosophila melanogaster. In addition, she has examined the molecular convergence in ATPα underlying toxin resistance in an herbivore community and found that adaptive evolution is predictable at molecular level to some extent. Furthermore, she has dissected the driving forces that shape the population genetic diversity of a collection of species across environmental gradients in Central African rainforest, in collaboration with international colleagues. This research provides new insight into strategies to prioritize geographic regions for protection.

Current research in Dr. Zhen's lab focuses on (but not limited to) addressing these questions:

1. What factors constrains adaptive evolution?

2. How does different evolutionary forces shape the pattern of diversity in natural populations?

3. What are the genetic and developmental basis of novel traits?  

1. Ying Zhen^#, Christian D. Huber, Robert W. Davies, Kirk E. Lohmueller^#. Greater strength of selection and higher proportion of beneficial amino acid changing mutations in humans compared with mice and Drosophila melanogaster. Genome Research (2021). 31:110–120.

2. Ying Zhen^#, Ryan J. Harrigan, Kristen Ruegg, Eric C. Anderson, Thomas C. Ng, Sirena Lao, Kirk E. Lohmueller, and Thomas B. Smith. Genomic divergence across ecological gradients in the Central African rainforest songbird (Andropadus virens). Molecular Ecology (2017). 26, 4966–4977

3. Ying Zhen, Matthew L Aardema, Edgar M Medina, Molly Schumer, Peter Andolfatto. Parallel molecular evolution in an herbivore community. Science (2012).337:1634-7.

4. Ying Zhen^#, Preeti Dhakal and Mark C. Ungerer. Fitness benefits and costs of cold acclimation in Arabidopsis thaliana. American Naturalist (2011). Vol. 178, No. 1, pp. 44-52.

5. Ying Zhen, Mark C Ungerer. Relaxed selection on the CBF/DREB1 regulatory genes and reduced freezing tolerance in the southern range of Arabidopsis thaliana. Molecular Biology and Evolution (2008). 25(12):2547-55.  

6. Ying Zhen, Mark C Ungerer. Clinal variation in freezing tolerance among natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana. New Phytologist (2008). 177 (2), 419–427.