Education

Ph.D., Quantitative Genetics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2024
M.S., Crop Physiology, Purdue University, 2018
B.S., Seed Science & Engineering, Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University, 2016

Research

My research focus is statistical genetics, variational inference, and the integration of multi-omics to connect genotype to phenotype

Selected Publications

• Zhikai Yang, Gen Xu, Qi Zhang, Toshihiro Obata, Jinliang Yang. 2022. Genome-wide mediation analysis: an empirical study to connect phenotype with genotype via intermediate transcriptomic data in maize. Genetics, DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyac057 
• Zhikai Yang, Tianjing Zhao, Cheng Hao, Jinliang Yang. 2023. Microbiome-enabled genomic selection improves prediction accuracy for nitrogen-related traits in maize. G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics, DOI:10.1093/g3journal/jkad286/7479790 
• Xiaoming He, ..., Zhikai Yang, …, Peng Yu. 2024. Heritable microbiome variation is correlated with source environment inlocally adapted maize varieties. Nature Plants, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01654-7 
• Qi Zhang, Zhikai Yang, Jinliang Yang. 2024. Dissecting the colocalized GWAS and eQTLs with mediation analysis for high dimensional exposures and confounders. Biometrics, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.08.507169. 
• Jinlong Li, ..., Zhikai Yang, Shaojiang Chen. 2020. Genomic selection to optimize doubled haploid-based hybrid breeding in maize. Plant Communications (in revision)