1. Plant virology
2. Disease-resistant transgenic plants and plant bioreactors
3. Optimization of transgene expression in plants

Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, 1967

1987 Science and Technology Advancement Prize Second-class awarded by Chiense Academy of Sciences 2
1990 Science and Technology Advancement Prize Second-class awarded by Chiense Academy of Sciences 1
1991 Science and Technology Advancement Prize first-class awarded by Chiense Academy of Sciences 1
1993 Science and Technology Advancement Prize first-class awarded by Chiense Academy of Sciences 1
1993 Science and Technology Advancement Prize first-class awarded by Henan Province 1

1994 Young and Middle-aged expert with Outstanding Contributions titled by Ministry of Personnel
1996 Third-class prize awarded by National Commission of Science and Technology for Chinese National Programs for High Technology Research and Development (863 Plan)
2001 Advanced Individual for the 15th Anniversary of Chinese National Programs for High Technology Research and Development (863 Plan) awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China
2005 Science and Technology Advancement Prize awarded by The Holeung Ho Lee Foundation

Prof. Rongxiang Fang has been conducting basic and applied research in plant virology and plant biotechnology. In 1985, he published the complete genome sequence of the Xinjiang strain of Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV), the first plant virus to be sequenced in China. Later on he cloned and sequenced the coat protein gene of a number of plant viruses. He also completed the whole-genome sequence analysis on Rice yellow stunt rhabdovirus, revealing a new gene in the virus not present in other rhabdoviruses. In this virus, he further identified a protein with a function in virus cell-to-cell movement, representing the first example of viral movement proteins of plant rhabdoviruses. In plant biotechnology, he successfully developed the transgenic tobacco plants resistant to both Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) by simultaneously expressing TMV and CMV coat proteins in plants. The transgenic tobacco plants were planted as early as 1992 at the largest scale in the world at that time. The same strategy was later applied to produce virus-resistant chili pepper which was granted a license for commercialization in 2001. In the field of plant gene expression, he analyzed and improved the CaMV 35S promoter which has been widely used in plant molecular biology and plant biotechnology. He dissected the promoter of the rice cell wall glycine-rich protein gene and identified the DNA sequence responsible for vascular tissue-specific expression of the promoter. At the translational level of gene expression, he found that fusion of a CMV coat protein polypeptide can significantly augment expression of foreign proteins in higher plants, and further developed a more useful strategy by fusing the CMV peptide and the ubiquitin monomer in tandem with the foreign protein, allowing release of the foreign protein in its natural form in plant cells.

1． Asia-Pacific Biotech News (Editor)
2． Chinese Journal of Virology (Associate Editor-in-chief)
3． Journal of Agricultural Biotechnology (Editor)
4． Chinese Journal of Biotechnology (Associate Editor-in-chief)
5． Science in China Series C (Associate Editor-in-chief

Lab Meeting at Fengshan on July 11-12, 2011