Water shortage is a serious constraint on crop production in the North China Plain (NCP), a major high quality wheat and maize production area in the future in China. To manage limited water resources, it is crucial to study on physiology genetics and breeding for drought resistance, water saving and good quality in wheat. These studies mostly include the following aspects here. Study on genetics regularity, gene locating, molecular marker and foundation genome of wheat traits of drought resistance and water saving; Study on breeding new variety which has drought resistance, water saving and good quality traits by means of chromosome engineering, molecular marker assisted selection breeding and transgenic technique; Study on molecular biological basis on drought resistance and water saving, like  as the relationship between water channels protein and water high-efficiency using; the  mechanism of water deficit response—damage—water—recovery—compensatory; the mechanism of water regulatory—photosynthesis production distribution-improving economic index; the growth model of water use efficiency; the relationship between wheat root and drought resistance and water saving.   

　　Wheat is one of the world's major food crops, and its nutritional quality has been putted more and more attention. Many human diseases is related to micronutrient deficiency, so many countries pay attention to improving micronutrients in food research, which has become an important part of the Second Green Revolution. Nutrient biofortification breeding becomes the new direction in crop improving. Color-grain wheat contains lots of nutrients which are beneficial to human health, so we also breed new wheat varieties rich in many kinds of amino acids, mineral elements and vitamins. 

    He has been researching physiology and genetics as well breeding for drought resistance and water use efficiency in wheat. He has published more than 240 papers and 8 books like as < Wheat genetics>,; ; ; ；< Water and food security and of modern agriculture development in China>.He breed four new wheat varieties with good drought resistance and high water use efficiency and yield. He breeds lots of color-grain wheat lines with blue and purple seed color, these color-grain wheat with good nutrition quality that is benefit to human health. He had successfully initiated The First International Conference on the Theory and Practices in Biological Water Saving. Beijing, China. May 21 to 25, 2006. He got two times of the second award of science and technology of Chinese, two times of the first award of science and technology of Shaanxi Province and other twelve awards. He had suggested twenty consulting reports to improve water and food security and modern agriculture and approved by national and provincial leader and governments.　

　　1.       MengYun Hu , Zhi Gang Shi, Ping Xu, Hui Li, Zhengbin Zhang*. Wheat acclimates to water deficit by modifying carbohydrates metabolism, water use efficiency, and growth. Brazilian Journal of Botany, 2015, 38（3）:505-515 

　　2.       XiaoYa Zheng, Zheng-Bin Zhang*, Hong-Bo Shao, Hong-Bin Zhao, Ping Xu and Ying-Fu Yang. Plant aquaporins for controlling crop nutrition transport under abiotic stress conditions. Journal of Food , Agriculture & Environment, 2013，11 (3&4): 1019-1025 

　　3.       Zifeng Guo, Zhengbin Zhang*, Ping Xu, Yunna Guo. Analysis of Nutrient Compositions of purple wheats in China. Cereal Research Communications.2013,41(2):293-303 

　　4.       Mengyun Hu，Zhigang Shi，Zhengbin Zhang，Yingjun Zhang，Hui Li. Effects of exogenous glucose on seed germination and antioxidant capacity in wheat seedlings under salt stress. Plant Growth Regulation, 2012, 68:177–18 

　　5.       Guo Zifeng, Xu Ping, Zhang Zhengbin*, Guo Yunna, Segregation Ratios of Colored Grains in F1 Hybrid Wheat. Crop Breeding and Applied Biotechnology, 2012, 12: 126-131  

　　6.       Zhao Mingyu, Zhang Zhengbin*, Shouyi Chen*, Jinsong Zhang，Hongbo Shao. WRKY transcription factor superfamily: structure, origin and function. African Journal of Biotechnology, 2012, 11(32): 8051-8059  

　　7.       Can-Fang Niu, Wei Wei, Qi-Yun Zhou, Ai-Guo Tian,Yu-Jun Hao,Wan-Ke Zhang, Biao Ma,Qing Lin, Zheng-Bin Zhang*,Jin-Song Zhang*,Shou-Yi Chen*.Wheat WRKY genes TaWRKY2 and TaWRKY19 regulate abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants.Plant, Cell & Environment, 2012, 35, 1156–1170 

　　8.       Zhang Zhengbin*, Duan Ziyuan，Shao Hongbo*, Chen Peng, Xu Ping. Establishing a biotech-modern-agriculture for China. African Journal of Biotechnology, 2011, 10(72):16113-16119 

　　9.       Guo Zifeng, Xu Ping, Zhang Zhengbin*, Wang Daowen*，Miao Jin, Anping Teng. Segregation ratios of colored grains in crossed wheat. Australian Journal of Crop Science, 2011，5（5）：589-594 

　　10.    Zhang Zhengbin, Xu Ping, Shao Hongbo Liu Mengjun, Fu Zhenyan，Chu liye. Advance and prospects: biotechnologically improving crop water use efficiency. Critical reviews in biotechnology, 2011，31（3）：281-293  

　　11.    Z.Y. FU，Z.B.Zhang*，Z.H. LIU, X.J. Hu , Ping Xu. The effects of abiotic stresses on the NADP-dependent malic enzyme in the leaves of the hexaploid wheat. Biologia Plantarum, 2011,55(1): 196-200  

　　12.    Zhengbin Zhang, Ziyuan Duan, Zhaobo Chen, Ping Xu, Guoqiang Li. Food Security of China: The Past, Present and Future. Plant Omics Journal, 2010 ,3（6）:183-189 　　   

　　13.    Zhang Zheng-bin, Xu Ping, Jia Ji-zeng, Zhou Rong-hua. Quantitative trait loci for leaf chlorophyll fluorescence traits in wheat. Australian Journal of Crop Science, 2010，4（8）571-579 

　　14.    XJ Hu, ZB Zhang*, ZY Fu, P Xu, WQ Li. Significance of a β-ketoacyl-CoA synthase gene expression for wheat tolerance to adverse environments. Biologia Plantarum, 2010，54（3）：575-578  

　　15.    Hongbin Zhao, Zhengbin Zhang*, Ping Xu. Enhanced aquaporin activity of two different genotypes of drought-resistant wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars facilitate their adaptation to drought stress. Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment. 2010,Vol 8. (2) ：1158-1161  

        16.    Xiaojun Hu, Zhengbin Zhang*, Ping Xu, Zhenyan Fu, Weiyi Song. Multifunctional genes: the cross-talk among the regulation networks of abiotic stress responses. Biologia Plantarum，2010，54 (2): 213-223