Summary
Research Interests
We aim to understand the mystery of regeneration in plants. Plants are remarkable as small segments like stem cuttings can grow into new plants. Many other creatures do not possess such a capability. After differentiation adult cells are specialised to perform defined tasks, for example, as leaf and root in plants, or brain and muscle in animals. They normally only produce further cells of the same type because the epigenetic information of cell identity is faithfully passed on to the daughter cells. However, as many plants can regenerate a new body from adult cells, such epigenetic memory needs to be reset for adult cells to regain stem cell properties. We use plant (Arabidopsis) regeneration as our model system to study how the epigenetic memory is erased and how cells are reprogrammed towards pluripotency and totipotency.
Enquiries about PhD and post-doctoral positions are always welcome.
Publications
Journals
Keyzor C, Mermaz B, Trigazis E, et al., 2021, Histone demethylases ELF6 and JMJ13 antagonistically regulate self-fertility in Arabidopsis, Frontiers in Plant Science, Vol:12, ISSN:1664-462X
Yang C, Song J, Ferguson A, et al., 2017, Transcription factor MYB26 is key to spatial specificity in anther secondary thickening formation, Plant Physiology, Vol:175, ISSN:1532-2548, Pages:333-350
Questa JI, Song J, Geraldo N, et al., 2016, Arabidopsis transcriptional repressor VAL1 triggers Polycomb silencing at FLC during vernalization, Science, Vol:353, ISSN:0036-8075, Pages:485-488
Angel A, Song J, Yang H, et al., 2015, Vernalizing cold is registered digitally at FLC, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol:112, ISSN:0027-8424, Pages:4146-4151
Song J, Rutjens B, Dean C, 2014, Detecting histone modifications in plants., Methods Mol Biol, Vol:1112, Pages:165-175