Yan Zhang

Our laboratory investigates how bacteria sense and adapt to environmental stress, with a particular focus on the cold shock response (CSR) as a model for understanding post-transcriptional regulation. Temperature fluctuations perturb multiple thermodynamically sensitive cellular structures and processes, requiring systems-level regulatory programs to restore cellular function. While the heat shock response is well understood, the molecular organization, quantitative principles, and evolution of CSR remain poorly understood.

Combining microbiology, RNA biology, functional genomics, and computational biology, our group is developing a comparative, cross-species framework to define conserved and species-specific mechanisms of CSR. We are particularly interested in how temperature-dependent changes in RNA structure, RNA metabolism, and ribosome function are sensed and translated into regulatory responses, and how these molecular effects collectively reshape gene expression and cellular physiology. Our work integrates genome-scale measurements with mechanistic studies of translational control and RNA metabolism in evolutionarily divergent bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and the highly cryotolerant pathogen Listeria monocytogene.

Our long-term goal is to uncover quantitative and biophysical principles that connect temperature-dependent molecular changes to cellular adaptation and to understand how these principles are diversified across species to shape environmental resilience, pathogen survival, and ecological fitness.