Xie labortaory major interests to understanding how legume plants make a nodule.  We are focused on understanding the mechanisms of how legume plants regulate rhizobium infection, the nodule organ formation. We are using genetics in Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula to identify the plant components important for infection thread progressing, the signaling transduction of bacteria secreted exopolysaccharides signals, the Nod factor coordinated with phytohormone to regulate nodule organ formation  and the molecular mechanism of nitrate inhibit nodulation. From these basic researches, we’re trying to understand why only legumes can symbiotic nitrogen fixation, and provide scientific knowledge for exploring non-legume nitrogen fixation. 

2012-present  Principal investigator, Professor, Institute of Plant Physiology & Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences 

2007-2011    Postdoctoral Fellow, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK 

2002- 2007   PhD, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, CAS. 

1999-2002   MS, Department of Agronomy, Xinjiang Agriculture University 

1991-1995   BS, Department of Horticulture, Xinjiang Tarimu University  

1. Fang Xie, Liping Qiu, Chi-kuang Wen (2012). Possible modulation of Arabidopsis ETR1 N-terminal signaling by CTR1. Plant Signal Behav 7: 1243-1245. 

2. Liping Qiu^*,Fang Xie^*, Jing Yu and Chi-kuang Wen(2012). Arabidopsis RTE1 Is Essential to Ethylene Receptor ETR1 Amino-Terminal Signaling Independent of CTR1. Plant physiology, 159:1263-1276. 

3. Fang Xie, Jiyong Kim, Jeremy Murray, Anne L. Heckmann, Giles E.D.Oldroyd and J. Allan Downie(2012). A legume pectate lyase is required for root hairs by rhizobia. Proceedings of National Academy of Science, 109(2):633-8.  

4. Fang Xie, Alan Williams, Anne Edwards and J. Allan Downie(2012). A plant arabinogalactan-like glycoprotein promote a novel type of polar surface attachment by Rhizobium  leguminosarum. Mol Plant Microbe Interact, 25(2):250-8.  

5. Xin Zhou, Qian Liu, Fang Xie and Chi-kuang Wen (2007). RTE1 is a Golgi-associated and ETR1-dependent negative regulator of ethylene responses. Plant Physiology, 145:75-86. 

6. Fang Xie, Qian Liu, and Chi-Kuang Wen (2006). Receptor signal output mediated by the ETR1 N terminus is primarily subfamily I Receptor dependent. Plant Physiology, 142:492-508.