1. essential information
Wang Xihong, female, born in 1983, is from Qingdao, Shandong Province. She is an associate professor (Level 6 position) and a doctoral supervisor. She obtained her bachelor's degree from Ocean University of China in 2006 and her Ph.D. from the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. She has been teaching at Northwest A&F University since 2013 and was directly appointed as an associate professor in 2018.
2. research-on-research
Our research focuses on genomic genetics and breeding studies of goat and sheep. By employing population genetics and bioinformatics, we conduct in-depth mining of omics big data resources from domestic, wild, and ancient goat worldwide. This work aims to decipher key traits and genetic modifications during the origin, domestication, and improvement of goat, identify candidate causal variants for superior traits, and apply research findings to technologies like genome selection to advance molecular breeding.
She has presided over more than 10 national Natural Science Foundation projects, including general project/youth fund, National Key R&D Program, Shaanxi Key R&D Program, etc., and his research results have been published in Science Advance, Molecular Biology and Evolution and other well-known journals.
3. personnel training
She primarily teaches undergraduate and graduate courses including Molecular Biology, Animal Biotechnology, and Bioinformatics. Associate editor of Animal Biotechnology (Second Edition), awarded the First Prize in the 2018 Young Faculty Teaching Competition at Northwest A&F University. In 2021, she received the Wu Changxin Award for Excellence in Animal Genetics and Breeding, and in 2025, his student-led scientific innovation project earned the Third Prize at the Shaanxi Provincial Biology Competition.
4. Representative academic papers
(1) Bian P#, Li J#, Zhou S#,…, Jiang Y*, Wang X*. A Graph-based Goat Pangenome Reveals Structural Variations Involved in Domestication and Adaptation. Molecular Biology And Evolution. 2024; 41(12): msae251.
(2) Dou M#, Li M#, Zheng Z#,…,Wang X*, Jiang Y*. A missense mutation in RRM1 contributes to animal tameness. Science Advances. 2023; 9(25): eadf4068.
(3) Nanaei HA#, Cai Y#, Alshawi,…, Wang X*, Jiang Y*, Genomic analysis of indigenous goats in Southwest Asia reveals evidence of ancient adaptive introgression related to desert climate. Zoological Research, 2023, 44(1): 20-29.
(4) Li R#, Gong M#, Zhang X#,…,Wang X, et al. A sheep pangenome reveals the spectrum of structural variations and their effects on tail phenotypes. Genome Research. 2023; 33(3): 463-477.
(5) Yang Z#, Li J#, Zheng Z,…, Jiang Y*, Zheng W*, Wang X*. Allele-specific expression analyses revealed immune divergences between ibex and goat species. Zoological Research. 2022, 43(4): 671-674.
(6) Billah M#, Wang X#, Yu J#, Jiang Y*. Real-time goat face recognition using convolutional neural network. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 2022, 194: 106730.
(7) Li M#, Sun C#, Xu N, Wang X#, et al. De Novo Assembly of 20 Chicken Genomes Reveals the Undetectable Phenomenon for Thousands of Core Genes on Microchromosomes and Subtelomeric Regions. Molecular Biology And Evolution. 2022; 39(4): msac066.
(8) Huang Y#, Li Y#, Wang X#, et al. An atlas of CNV maps in cattle, goat and sheep. Science China-life Sciences. 2021; 64(10): 1747-1764.
(9) Zheng Z#, Wang X#, Li M#, et al. The origin of domestication genes in goat. Science Advances. 2020, 6(21): 0-eaaz5216.
(10) Cai Y#, Fu W#, Cai D#,..., Jiang Y*, Wang X*. Ancient genomes reveal the evolutionary history and origin of cashmere producing goats in China, Molecular Biology and Evolution. 2020; 37(7): 2099-2109.
(11) Wang X#, Zheng Z#, Cai Y#, et al. Highly Efficient and Widely Applicable Software for Detecting Copy Number Variations in Large Populations. Gigascience. 2017; 6(12): 1-12.
(12) Jiang Y#, Wang X#, Kijas J#, et al, Beta-globin gene evolution in the ruminants: evidence for an ancient origin of sheep haplotype B. Animal Genetics. 2015; 46(5): 506-514.
5. Admissions and team-building
We welcome students who are interested in group genetics, quantitative genetics, bioinformatics and other fields to apply for master's and doctoral studies. We also welcome PhD graduates to join our team for postdoctoral research.
Email: wxh@nwafu.edu.cn；rebecca_830410@163.com
