Ph.D., Professor (PI)
Institute of Life Sciences, SoutheastUniversity
2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210096,
Tel/Fax: 86-25-83790970
Email: wei.xie@seu.edu.cn
Education Background & Academic Experience
1. 1988-1991, MS, Microbiology and Immunology, Nanjing Railway Medical College, China
2. 1992-1995, Ph.D., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Nanjing University, China
3. 1997-1998, Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Pharmacology, University of Rochester Medical Center, USA
4. 1999-2000, Postdoctoral fellow, Program in Developmental Biology, the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada
5. 2000-2001, Visiting Scientist, Program in Developmental Biology, the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada
6. 2001-present, Professor, Institute of Life Sciences, Southeast University, China
Research Interests
Mechanisms of Neural Development and Cognitive diseases. It has been realized that neurological developmental diseases, such asAutistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), cognition developmental defects and mental retardation, usually are the consequence of genetic mutation or expression mis-regulation of neural specific genes. These genes generally play crucial roles in various neurological developmental events at different levels. We are specifically interested in those genes important for synaptogenesis, synaptic specification and formation of neural circuits. Failure to form normal functional synapses leads to aberrant brain circuit formation and consequential neurological disease symptoms. For example, Neurexins and one group of its ligands, Neuroligins, are important cell adhesion molecules to determine synaptic specifications and maintain normal synaptic signal transmission in neuronal cells. We try to understand how these molecules are misregulated at different levels (transcriptional, translational or posttranslational levels) to affect normal synaptic formation and function in Drosophila and mouse model systems.
Selected Publications
1. Dandan Lv, An Liu*, Ziyue Yi, Mingdao Mu, Miao Wu, Xingcan Li, Kun Cao, Ruining Liu, Zhengping Jia, Junhai Han, Wei Xie*. Neuroligin 1 Regulates Autistic-Like Repetitive Behavior through Modulating the Activity of Striatal D2 Receptor-Expressing Medium Spiny Neurons. Adv Science (Weinh). 2025 Feb;12(5):e2410728.
2. Peng Xie, Juan Shen, Yi Yang, Xinrui Wang, Wei Liu, Hailong Cao, Yanying Zheng, Chen Wu, Guangyao Mao, Linjin Chen, Jingjing He, Weiheng Zheng, Zepu Yang, Xiao Zhang, Xu Jiang, Xianfa Yang, Ke Fang, Zhao Zhang, Xin Xue, Xueting Chen, Chaoyi Wang, Xing Liu, Ling Liu, Xuebiao Yao, Naihe Jing, Wei Xie, Jin Liu, Hua Cao, Zhuojuan Luo*, Xiaodong Fang*, Chengqi Lin*. Digital reconstruction of full embryos during early mouse organogenesis. Cell, 2025, 188, 1-19.
3. Shiqi Zhu, Peng Xie, Yi Yang, Yan Wang, Chuanxin Zhang, Yu Zhang, Shuhan Si, Jin Zhang, Jingjing He, Hao Si, Ke Fang, Binbin Ma, Xu Jiang, Lindi Huang, Jiamin Li, Tian Min, Beihong Zheng, Lincui Da, Dianliang Lin, Kun Gao, Yuanyuan Li, Mingtao Huang, Fengchang Qiao, Haiqin Huo, Haoyang Feng, Han Zhao, Zijiang Chen, Zhengfeng Xu, Jing Xie, Hua Cao, Jin Liu, Xuebiao Yao, Wei Xie, Yan Sun, Keliang Wu, Bo Xiong, Ping Hu*, Zhuojuan Luo*, Chengqi Lin*. Maternal ELL3 loss-of-function leads to oocyte aneuploidy and early miscarriage. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2025 Feb;32(2):381-392.
4. Yu Zhao, Junhua Geng*, Zhu Meng, Yichen Sun, Mengzhu Ou, Lizhong Xu, Moyi Li, Guangming Gan, Menglong Rui, Junhai Han, Wei Xie*. Neurexin facilitates glycosylation of Dystroglycan to sustain muscle architecture and function in Drosophila. Commun Biol. 2024, Nov. 9; 7:1481.
5. Rui Dang, An Liu*, Yu Zhou, Xingcan Li, Miao Wu,Kun Cao,Yanghong Meng, Haiwang Zhang, Guangming Gan, Wei Xie* & Zhengping Jia*. Astrocytic neuroligin 3 regulates social memory and synaptic plasticity through adenosine signaling in male mice. Nat Commun 2024, 15, 8639.
6. Mingdao Mu*, Haoyu Sun, Shuyan Geng, Tianxiang Xu, Chuanyao Sun, Zixu Zhang, Sibie Meng, Moyi Li, An Liu, Zhiyuan Yang and Wei Xie*. Neurexin-3 in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus regulates body weight and glucose homeostasis independently of food intake. Mol Brain, 2024, 17:49.
7. Haiyan Sun*, Yu Shen, Pengtao Ni, Xin Liu, Yan Li, Zhentong Qiu, Jiawen Su, Yihan Wang, Miao Wu, Xiangxi Kong, Jun-Li Cao*, Wei Xie*, and Shuming An*. Autism-associated neuroligin-3 deficiency in medial septum causes social deficits and sleep loss in mice. J Clin Invest. 2024 Jul 25:e176770.
8. Siqi Peng, Xiuqi Yang, Sibie Meng, Fuyuan Liu, Yaochen Lv, Huiquan Yang, Youyong Kong, Wei Xie, Moyi Li*. Dual circuits from hippocampus facilitate naive social 2 transfer of observational fear. Cell Reports, 2024 May 27;43(6):114277.
9. Qiaoyun Ren, Susu Wang, Junru Li, Kun Cao, Mei Zhuang, Miao Wu, Junhua Geng, Zhengping Jia, Wei Xie, An Liu*. Novel social stimulation ameliorates memory deficit in Alzheimer's disease model through activating α-secretase. J Neurosci. 2024 Feb 28:e1689232024. (This Week in The Journal)
10. Siyan Meng, Xiaoxu Liu, Shiqi Zhu, Peng Xie, Haitong Fang, Qingyun Pan, Ke Fang, Fanfan Li, Jin Zhang, Zhuanzhuan Che, Quanyong Zhang, Guangyao Mao, Yan Wang, Ping Hu, Kai Chen, Fei Sun, Wei Xie, Zhuojuan Luo*, Chengqi Lin*. Young LINE-1 transposon 5' UTRs marked by elongation factor ELL3 function as enhancers to regulate naïve pluripotency in embryonic stem cells. Nat Cell Biol. 2023 Sep;25(9):1319-1331.
11. Yichen Sun, Moyi Li*, Junhua Geng, Sibie Meng, Renjun Tu, Yan Zhuang, Mingkuan Sun, Menglong Rui, Mengzhu Ou，Guangling Xing, Travis K Johnson, Wei Xie*. Neuroligin 2 Governs Synaptic Morphology and Function Through RACK1-Cofilin Signaling in Drosophila. Commun Biol. 2023 Oct 18;6(1):1056.
12. Xiaofeng Han, Shuxia Guo, Nan Ji, Tian Li, Jian Liu, Xiangqiao Ye, Yi Wang, Zhixi Yun, Feng Xiong, Jing Rong, Di Liu, Hui Ma, Yujin Wang, Yue Huang, Peng Zhang, Wenhao Wu, Liya Ding, Wei Xie, Lijuan Liu, Liwei Zhang*, Hanchuan Peng*. Whole Human-Brain Mapping of Single Cortical Neurons for Profiling Morphological Diversity and Stereotypy. Science Adv, 2023, 9(41): eadf3771.
13. Rui Dang, Yu Zhou, Yue Zhang, Die Liu, Miao Wu, An Liu, Zhengping Jia* & Wei Xie*. Regulation of Social Memory by Lateral Entorhinal Cortical Projection to Dorsal Hippocampal CA2. Neurosci Bull, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1007/ s12264-021-00813-6.
14. Hanchuan Peng*, Peng Xie,#, Lijuan Liu#, Yimin Wang, Lei Qu, Hui Gong, Xiuli Kuang, Shengdian Jiang, Anan Li, Zongcai Ruan, Liya Ding, Mengya Chen, Tanya L. Daigle, Zhangcan Ding, Yanjun Duan, Aaron Feiner, Ping He, Chris Hill, Karla E. Hirokawa, Guodong Hong, Lei Huang, Sara Kebede, Hsien-Chi Kuo, Rachael Larsen, Phil Lesnar, Longfei Li, Qi Li, Xiangning Li, Yaoyao Li, Yuanyuan Li, An Liu, et al, Yefeng Zheng, Zhongze Gu, Wei Xie, Christof Koch, Qingming Luo, Julie A. Harris, Yun Wang, Hongkui Zeng*. Complete whole-brain single neuron reconstruction reveals morphological diversity in molecularly defined striatal, thalamic, cortical and claustral neuron types. Nature, 2021, 598:174-181.
15. Yuqian Shen, Zi Chao Zhang, Shanshan Cheng, An Liu, Jian Zuo, Shuting Xia, Xian Liu, Wenhua Liu, Zhengping Jia, Wei Xie, Junhai Han*. PQBP1 promotes translational elongation and regulates hippocampal mGluR-LTD by suppressing eEF2 phosphorylation. Mol Cell, 2021, 81:1425-1438.
16. Wei Xie*, Cheng-Qi Lin, Jian Li, Mo-Yi Li. Decoding brain encoded by genome. Yi Chuan (Hereditas Beijing), 2021 May 20;43(5):393-396.
17. Moyi Li*, Yan Zhuang, Ranjan Batra, James D. Thomas, Mao Li, Curtis A Nutter, Marina M. Scotti, Helmut A Carter, Zhan Jun Wang, Xu Sheng Huang, Chuan Qiang Pu, Maurice S. Swanson, Wei Xie*. HNRNPA1-induced spliceopathy in a transgenic mouse model of myotonic dystrophy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020,117(10): 5472-5477.
18. Xuechen Zhou, Rui Hao, Chen Chen, Zhipeng Su, Linhong Zhao, Zhuojuan Luo, Wei Xie*. Rapid Delivery of Nanobodies/ VHHs into Living Cells via Expressing In Vitro-Transcribed mRNA. Mol Therapy - Methods & Clinical Development, 2020, 17:401-408.
19. Guanglin Xing, Moyi Li, Menglong Rui, Nana Tao, Yan Zhuang, Huihui Lv, Junhai Han, Zhengping Jia*, and Wei Xie*. Neuroligin 1 Regulates Postsynaptic Actin Cytoskeleton via WAVE Regulatory Complex in Drosophila Neuromuscular Junction, eLife, 2018, DOI: 10.7554/eLife.30457.
20. Zikai Zhou, An Liu, Shuting Xia, Celeste Leung, Junxia Qi, Yanghong Meng, Wei Xie, Pojeong Park, Graham L. Collingridge*, Zhengping Jia*. The C-terminal tails of endogenous GluA1 and GluA2 differentially contribute to hippocampal synaptic plasticity and learning. Nat Neurosci, 2018, 21(1):50-62.
21. Jun Wu, Yao Tian, Guanglin Xing, Nana Tao, Huihui Lv, Junhai Han, Chengqi Lin and Wei Xie*. Proteolytic Maturation of Drosophila Neuroligin 3 by Tumor Necrosis Factor α-converting Enzyme in the Nervous System. BBA-General, 2018, 1862(3):440-450.
22. Xinwang Zhang, Menglong Rui, Guangming Gan, Cong Huang, Jukang Yi, Huihui Lv, Junhai Han, and Wei Xie*. Neuroligin 4 regulates synaptic growth via the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction. J Biol Chem, 2017, 292(44):17991-18005.
23. Menglong Rui, Jinjun Qian, Lijuan Liu, Yihan Cai, Huihui Lv, Junhai Han, Zhengping Jia and Wei Xie*. The neuronal protein neurexin directly interacts with the Scribble-Pix complex to stimulate F-actin assembly for presynaptic vesicle clustering. J Biol Chem, 2017, 292(35):14334-14348.
24. Renjun Tu, Jinjun Qian, Menglong Rui, Nana Tao, Mingkuan Sun, Yan Zhuang, Huihui Lv, Junhai Han, Moyi Li, Wei Xie*. Proteolytic cleavage is required for Neuroligin 2 maturation and function in Drosophila. JMCB, 2017, 9(3):231-242.
25. Lina Liu, Yao Tian, Xiaoyan Zhang, Xinwang Zhang, Tao Li, Wei Xie, and Junhai Han*. Neurexin Restricts Axonal Branching in Columns by Promoting Ephrin Clustering. Deve Cell, 2017, 41:94-106. (Cover Story)
26. Yan Wang, Yang Shen, Qian Yang, Qian Dai, Yue Zhang, Xin Wang, Wei Xie, Zhuojuan Luo*, Chengqi Lin*. A permissive chromatin state regulated by ZFP281-AFF3 in controlling the imprinted Meg3 polycistron. Nucleic Acids Res, 2017, 45(3):1177-1185.
27. Shuting Xia, Zikai Zhou, Celeste Leung, Yuehua Zhu, Xingxiu Pan, Maria Morena, Matthew N. Hill*, Wei Xie*, and Zhengping Jia*. p21-Activated Kinase 1 Restricts Tonic Endocannabinoid Signaling in the Hippocampus. eLife, 2016, 5:e14653.
28. An Liu, Zikai Zhou, Rui Dang, Guiqing He, Celeste Leung, Daniel Pak, Zhengping Jia*, and Wei Xie*. Neuroligin 1 regulates spines and synaptic plasticity via LIMK1/cofilin mediated actin reorganization. J Cell Biol, 2016, 212:449-463. (Cover Story, w/COMMENTARY)
29. Tao Li, Yao Tan, Qian Li, Huiying Chen, Huihui Lv, Wei Xie, and Junhai Han*. Neurexin/NSF interaction regulates short-term synaptic depression. J Biol Chem 2015, 290(29):17656-67. (Papers of the Week, Cover Story, 2015 Best of Winner)
30. Xingxiu Pan, Xinxia Chang, Celeste Leung, Zikai Zhou, Feng Cao, Wei Xie*, Zhengping Jia*. PAK1 regulates cortical development via promoting neuronal migration and progenitor cell proliferation. Mol Brain, 2015, 8:36.
31. Guanglin Xing, Guangming Gan, Dandan Chen, Mingkuan Sun, Jukang Yi, Huihui Lv, Junhai Han, Wei Xie*. Drosophila Neuroligin3 Regulates Neuromuscular Junction Development and Synaptic Differentiation. J Biol Chem, 2014, 289(46): 31867-31877. (Paper of the Week)
32. Yi Li, Ziaki Zhou, Xinwang Zhang, Huawei Tong, Peipei Li, Zi chao Zhang, Zhengping Jia, Wei Xie* and Junhai Han*. Drosophila Neuroligin 4 regulates sleep through modulating GABA transmission. J Neurosci, 2013, 33:15545-15554.
33. Yao Tian, Yi Li, Mingkuan Sun, Wen Hu, Didi Wan, Jing Li, Junhai Han* and Wei Xie*. Neurexin Regulates Visual Function via Mediating Retinoid Transport to Promote Rhodopsin Maturation. Neuron, 2013, 140:413-422.
34. SUN MingKuan*, XIE Wei*. Cell Adhesion Molecules in Drosophila Synapse Development and Function. Sci China Life Sci, 2012, 55(1):20-26.
35. David Knight, Wei Xie and Gabrielle Boulianne*. Neurexins and Neuroligins: Recent Insights from Invertebrates. Mol Neurobiol, 2011, 44(3):426-440.
36. Mingkuan Sun, Guanglin Xing, Liudi Yuan, Guangming Gan, David Knight, Sheila Irene With, Cui He, Junhai Han, Xiankun Zeng, Ming Fang, Gabrielle L. Boulianne*, Wei Xie*. Neuroligin2 Is Required for Synapse Development and Function at the Drosophila Neuromuscular Junction. J Neurosci, 2011, 31(2):687-699. (This Week in The Journal)
37. Mingkuan Sun, Lijuan Liu Xiankun Zeng, Li Liu, Ming fang, Wei Xie*. Genetic Interaction between Neurexin and CAKI/CMG Is Important for the Synaptic Function in Drosophila Neuromuscular Junction. Neurosci Res, 2009, 64:362-71.
38. Xiankun Zeng, Mingkuan Sun, Li Liu, Fading Chen, Liuchan Wei, Wei Xie*. Neurexin-1 is required for synapse formation and larvae associative learning in Drosophila. FEBS Lett, 2007,581:2509-2516.