About

Dr. Xiao Fan is an Assistant Professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering. She completed her Ph.D. in Bioinformatics at the University of Alberta in 2016. Her research focuses on studying the genetic architecture of rare diseases using whole genome and exome sequencing data, improving the interpretation of genetic variants, and applying machine learning methods to address medical and biochemical questions. Her laboratory aims to discover novel disease-related genes through case-control association studies, accurately identify pathogenic variants with machine learning techniques, and predict the trajectory of medical phenotypes based on cellular, molecular, and genetic data. Dr. Fan's work seeks to enhance understanding of genetic, biological, and medical questions through computational approaches, with projects involving rare genetic diseases, variant interpretation, and phenotypic characteristics.

Research topics

• Biology
• Agronomy
• Traditional medicine
• Botany
• Chemistry
• Pharmacology
• Medicine
• Biochemistry

Selected publications

• Floral Elegance Meets Medicinal Marvels: Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry, and Pharmacology of the Genus Lagerstroemia L.

  Plants · 2024 · 8 citations

  • Traditional medicine
  • Biology
  • Medicine

  exhibit substantial medicinal potential, and the alignment between its traditional applications and contemporary pharmacological findings present promising opportunities for further investigation, particularly in food and health products, drug development, herbal teas, and cosmetics. However, evidence-based pharmacological research has largely been confined to in vitro screening and animal model, lacking clinical trials and bioactive compound isolations. Consequently, future endeavors should adopt a more holistic approach.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Toward the replacement of conventional fertilizer with polyhalite in eastern China to improve peanut growth and soil quality

  Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture · 2022 · 11 citations

  • Agronomy
  • Chemistry
  • Biology

  Abstract Background Polyhalite fertilizer application is an effective way to alleviate a shortage of potassium. This study explored the effects of polyhalite fertilizer application as a total or partial replacement for conventional potassium fertilizer to improve peanut growth and soil quality. Results The index of peanut yield and its economic benefits, the content and distribution of mineral nutrients in different organs, soil chemical properties, and rhizosphere microbial diversity in response to the treatments were examined. The results show that the M4P6T treatment (60% polyhalite fertilizer replacing potassium chloride as the base fertilizer, and 40% potassium chloride fertilizer applied as a topdressing) increased profit by 7.2% without affecting the yield. The M4P6T treatment significantly improved the accumulation and distribution of potassium, calcium and magnesium in the kernels compared with the M10B treatment (no polyhalite fertilizer; potassium chloride fertilizer only as the base fertilizer). Soil treated with polyhalite fertilizer had higher alpha-diversity values and greater relative abundance of microbes at the phylum and genus levels. Conclusions Partial substitution of polyhalite for potassium chloride improved soil quality and peanut growth more than did single applications of polyhalite and potassium chloride. Graphical Abstract

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Changes in Tea Performance and Soil Properties after Three Years of Polyhalite Application

  Agronomy Journal · 2019-06-06 · 19 citations

  articleSenior author

  Core Ideas Application of polyhalite increased tea yield and economic benefits. Polyhalite application showed no adverse effects on tea quality. Soil acidification was significantly reduced with polyhalite. Polyhalite would be widely used as a novel potassium fertilizer in tea plantations. Tea ( Camellia sinensis L.) is the world’s most widely consumed beverage with high economic and health benefits. Potassium is the second key nutrient for tea plants. Polyhalite is applied in some grain crops as a novel source of K, which also contains Ca, Mg, and S. However, the feasibility of using polyhalite for tea growth is unclear. Consequently, a 3‐yr field experiment was conducted to determine effects of polyhalite on soil properties, tea yield, economic benefits, and tea quality in southwest China. There were three treatments: control (CK, without K fertilizer), sulfate of potash (SOP) and polyhalite (POLY4). Compared with CK, SOP and POLY4 application increased soil available K, P, and S contents, as well as tea yields and economic benefits. Compared with SOP, POLY4 increased soil exchangeable Ca and Mg and available S contents, but decreased soil acidification due to high addition of CaSO 4 and MgSO 4 . POLY4 application led to 15.1% higher tea yield than SOP in 2017, while no difference was observed in 2015 and 2016. The POLY4 was economically superior to SOP in 2017 with a greater net benefit by US$1982 ha −1 . Although the two treatments did not differ on tea quality, correlation analysis demonstrated that quality was generally positively and significantly correlated with K, Ca, Mg, P, and S contents in tea leaves. Consequently, POLY4 was suitable as a K source for tea. Given high S and Ca contents in POLY4, it might be better to apply POLY4 together with other K fertilizers in future studies.

  PublisherDOI

• Field Evaluation of Tomato Cultivars for Tolerance to Tomato Chlorotic Spot Tospovirus

  Plant Health Progress · 2019-01-01 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Fourteen tomato cultivars resistant to tomato spotted wilt tospovirus (TSWV) were evaluated for their tolerance against tomato chlorotic spot tospovirus (TCSV) under field conditions during the 2014–2015 and 2015–2016 growing seasons in Homestead, FL. All TSWV-resistant tomato cultivars had significantly (P < 0.05) lower disease incidence of TCSV, compared with the commercial standard cultivars ‘FL 47’ or ‘Sanibel’, exhibiting intermediate to high levels of tolerance to TCSV. There was no significant effect of tomato genotype on the thrips vectors, western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) and common blossom thrips (F. schultzei). All tested tomato cultivars had equivalent or greater yields of total marketable fruit compared with the standard cultivar Sanibel. Particularly, in the third trial with disease incidence of 25% on Sanibel, ‘BHN 1064’ had significantly greater total yield and yields of extra-large and large fruit compared with Sanibel. ‘SV 7631TD’ and ‘Brickyard’ had significantly greater extra-large fruit yield and medium fruit yield, respectively, compared with Sanibel. Results from this study show that TSWV-resistant tomato cultivars were tolerant to TCSV under field conditions of south Florida, indicating that the use of genetic resistance in commercial tomato cultivars is an effective strategy to manage TCSV.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Effects of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria and N Source on Plant Growth and N and P Uptake by Tomato Grown on Calcareous Soils

  Pedosphere · 2017-08-05 · 70 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Prediction of nitrogen release from sigmoid-type controlled release fertilizers in greenhouse production of strawberry and cucumber

  Science China Life Sciences · 2017-07-19 · 5 citations

  letter
  PublisherDOI

• Predicting Nitrogen Release from Parabolic-type Resin-coated Urea in Greenhouse Tomato and Cucumber Production

  HortScience · 2017-07-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Increasing commercial use of controlled release fertilizer (CRF) has prompted the need to predict N release simply and viably in the greenhouse environment. Two CRFs were tested, i.e., P40d and P100d by incubating them for 40 or 100 days either in static water at 10, 15, 20, 25, and 35 °C or in the soil of vegetable plots in a greenhouse lacking temperature controls. Cumulative nitrogen release (CNR) from a CRF was represented by a parabola curve and significantly affected by the incubation temperature. A method to calculate N m (the maximum N release percentage from CRF) was established using a first-order kinetic equation and the method of least squares. N m was 90.9% to 99.9% for P40d and 72.1% to 87.1% for P100d at 10–35 °C, respectively. A relationship function between the N release rate and naturally fluctuating greenhouse soil temperatures was established using the activation energy of the N release reaction. Then a model was constructed with field temperature as the variable to predict N release throughout the entire greenhouse crop production season. The value of ψ representing a property of the coating material of a CRF is ≈ 1.0 for the release period of the CRF of 35–55 days and ≈ 1.2 of 80–120 days. We validated the model using two seasons of greenhouse tomato, Solanum lycopersicum L., and cucumber, Cucumis sativus L., production data, and found that the error was less than 12% points. This indicated that the constructed model was sufficiently simple, practical, and accurate for use by growers, and fertilizer industry and regulatory personnel.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Characterization of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria isolated from calcareous soils

  Applied Soil Ecology · 2015-08-29 · 158 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Polymer‐Coated Tablet Urea Improved Rice Yield and Nitrogen Use Efficiency

  Agronomy Journal · 2015-07-20 · 35 citations

  article

  The high cost of coating materials prevents the wide use of controlled release urea (CRU). A large size polymer‐coated tablet urea (PCTU) can be produced with <30% of coating materials used for traditional size of CRUs. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of a PCTU produced in our laboratory on root growth, grain yield, and N use efficiency on rice ( Oryza sativa L.) grown in a silt loam soil during two growing seasons. The PCTU, regular CRU and urea formaldehyde (UF) were applied into the soil one time before transplanting at the rate of 0.93 g N pot −1 , while the conventional urea (U) treatment was applied three times in the tillering (40%), jointing (30%), and heading stages (30%). The results showed that the PCTU treatment produced higher root vigor, peroxidase activity, and yield of rice than the U treatment. There was no significant difference in plant height, SPAD value, growth indexes of plant shoot and root of rice among the PCTU and U treatments in the rice tillering stage, but splitting applications of U at tillering, jointing, and heading stages costs more for labor and machinery than applying once for PCTU. The PCTU treatment increased the yield of grain and total N use efficiency more than the U, CRU, and UF treatments did, but the UF treatment produced the highest yield and N use efficiency of straw.

  PublisherDOI

• Controlled-Release Urea Commingled with Rice Seeds Reduced Emission of Ammonia and Nitrous Oxide in Rice Paddy Soil

  Journal of Environmental Quality · 2013-11-01 · 33 citations

  article

  Reduction of ammonia (NH) and nitrous oxide (NO) emission and enhanced nitrogen (N) fertilizer use efficiency have been investigated with different N fertilizer management and application methods for irrigated rice production. Few studies have examined NH and NO emissions from rice paddy soil when commingling controlled release urea with rice seeds. The objective of this study was to assess NH volatilization and NO emission from a novel controlled-release urea formulation (CRU-180) when commingled at the full application rate with seeds in a single application during the preparation of plant plugs at the nursery stage. The experiment was conducted as a factorial design with two fertilizer sources (conventional urea and CRU-180), four rates (0, 100, 200, and 300 kg N ha), and three replicates. The entire amount of CRU-180 was incorporated into each plug with germinated seed. The conventional urea was split into four applications based on the standard practice for fertilizer application. The CRU-180 treatments reduced the NH and NO concentration in the paddy flood water and paddy soil solution as compared with the conventional urea treatments. The percentage of applied N fertilizer emitted as NH volatilization and NO emission in the CRU-180 treatments was only about 10% of that from the conventional urea treatments at the same N application rate. The application of CRU-180 with seeds offers a novel N fertilizer management technique, a method to reduce environmental impacts associated with rice production and the cost of rice production.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Dexi Lin

  University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

  13 shared

• Yuechao Yang

  Shandong Agricultural University

  9 shared

• Li Y

  9 shared

• Hongtao Zhao

  6 shared

• Min Zhang

  Northwest A&F University

  6 shared

• Cai Gui-xin

  5 shared

• Yuqing Geng

  Tianjin University

  5 shared

• Silvia Haneklaus

  5 shared

Labs

• Fan LabPI

Awards & honors

• K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (2021-2026)
• Andrew Stewart Memorial Graduate Prize (2015)
• Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship (2014-2015)