@jameswalker303.bsky.social
Pinned
Extensive N4 cytosine methylation is essential for Marchantia sperm function
Global N4 cytosine methylation in Marchantia polymorpha sperm regulates gene expression
and promotes sperm fertility.
www.cell.com
I'm thrilled to share that our study is now published in Cell:
Extensive N4 cytosine methylation is essential for Marchantia sperm function.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
This paper confirms our 4mC discovery in Marchantia sperm and takes it much further.
A thread: 0/13
Extensive N4 cytosine methylation is essential for Marchantia sperm function.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
This paper confirms our 4mC discovery in Marchantia sperm and takes it much further.
A thread: 0/13
Reposted
Have you ever wondered how new DNA methylation patterns are established?
Paradigm shift ahead! We discovered a new mode of DNA methylation targeting in plants that relies on transcription factors and sequence motifs rather than chromatin modifications to regulate the methylome. rdcu.be/eQ6L5
1/8
Paradigm shift ahead! We discovered a new mode of DNA methylation targeting in plants that relies on transcription factors and sequence motifs rather than chromatin modifications to regulate the methylome. rdcu.be/eQ6L5
1/8
December 11, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Have you ever wondered how new DNA methylation patterns are established?
Paradigm shift ahead! We discovered a new mode of DNA methylation targeting in plants that relies on transcription factors and sequence motifs rather than chromatin modifications to regulate the methylome. rdcu.be/eQ6L5
1/8
Paradigm shift ahead! We discovered a new mode of DNA methylation targeting in plants that relies on transcription factors and sequence motifs rather than chromatin modifications to regulate the methylome. rdcu.be/eQ6L5
1/8
Excellent stuff @p-bourguet.bsky.social !
How is epigenetic information inherited? We found that CDCA7 proteins are critical players in the inheritance of DNA methylation at CG sites in plants, and this is true both in the lab and in the wild. How does this work? 🧵👇
New paper! Work led by @p-bourguet.bsky.social and Frédéric Berger at the GMI of the @oeaw.bsky.social and @esasaki007.bsky.social identified how protein CDCA7 helps plants stably maintain epigenetic modifications across generations.
Read more: www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/detail/n...
Read more: www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/detail/n...
November 8, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Excellent stuff @p-bourguet.bsky.social !
Reposted
Excited to see our story on epigenetic mediated aclimation of plants to fluctuating light patterns out today in doi.org/10.1111/nph..... This work started 6 years ago co-supervised with the amazing @proftlawson.bsky.social and led by the brilliant @robynemm.bsky.social. 1/2
September 20, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Excited to see our story on epigenetic mediated aclimation of plants to fluctuating light patterns out today in doi.org/10.1111/nph..... This work started 6 years ago co-supervised with the amazing @proftlawson.bsky.social and led by the brilliant @robynemm.bsky.social. 1/2
Reposted
Happy to share the results of a long-haul post-doc project, now online @science.org, aiming at understanding the rules of transgeneration epigenetic inheritance over TEs in plants and its extent and impact in nature. More below!
doi.org/10.1126/scie...
doi.org/10.1126/scie...
Transposable elements are vectors of recurrent transgenerational epigenetic inheritance
DNA methylation loss at transposable elements (TEs) can affect neighboring genes and be epigenetically inherited in plants, yet the determinants and significance of this additional system of inheritan...
doi.org
September 18, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Happy to share the results of a long-haul post-doc project, now online @science.org, aiming at understanding the rules of transgeneration epigenetic inheritance over TEs in plants and its extent and impact in nature. More below!
doi.org/10.1126/scie...
doi.org/10.1126/scie...
Reposted
@tinaschreier.bsky.social has been awarded an @erc.europa.eu Starting Grant for research into the cell biology of C4 photosynthesis 🌱
Tina’s project will explore the cell biology that leads to the formation of specialised bundle sheath cells in C4 plants 👇
bit.ly/4mWFGhh
Tina’s project will explore the cell biology that leads to the formation of specialised bundle sheath cells in C4 plants 👇
bit.ly/4mWFGhh
Dr Tina Schreier awarded ERC Starting Grant
bit.ly
September 4, 2025 at 11:00 AM
@tinaschreier.bsky.social has been awarded an @erc.europa.eu Starting Grant for research into the cell biology of C4 photosynthesis 🌱
Tina’s project will explore the cell biology that leads to the formation of specialised bundle sheath cells in C4 plants 👇
bit.ly/4mWFGhh
Tina’s project will explore the cell biology that leads to the formation of specialised bundle sheath cells in C4 plants 👇
bit.ly/4mWFGhh
Reposted
We are pleased to share that P4S Research Fellow @jamespblloyd.bsky.social from the University of Western Australia was recently awarded a Grains Research and Development Corporation Mid-Career Research Fellowship 🌟
Read more 👉 www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
Read more 👉 www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
July 29, 2025 at 1:42 AM
We are pleased to share that P4S Research Fellow @jamespblloyd.bsky.social from the University of Western Australia was recently awarded a Grains Research and Development Corporation Mid-Career Research Fellowship 🌟
Read more 👉 www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
Read more 👉 www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
Reposted
#PlantBio2025
I’ll be speaking in the final plenary—sharing the story behind this paper and some new, unpublished work from my lab at TSL. Hope people stick around till the end (though a few already warned me they’re leaving early 😅)!
I’ll be speaking in the final plenary—sharing the story behind this paper and some new, unpublished work from my lab at TSL. Hope people stick around till the end (though a few already warned me they’re leaving early 😅)!
New year, new paper! Now published in @nature.com. We identified and characterised diverse immune cell states in plants under pathogen attack. My postdoc work in the Ecker lab at @salkinstitute.bsky.social. A thread (0/n)
#PlantScience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#PlantScience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 26, 2025 at 5:09 PM
#PlantBio2025
I’ll be speaking in the final plenary—sharing the story behind this paper and some new, unpublished work from my lab at TSL. Hope people stick around till the end (though a few already warned me they’re leaving early 😅)!
I’ll be speaking in the final plenary—sharing the story behind this paper and some new, unpublished work from my lab at TSL. Hope people stick around till the end (though a few already warned me they’re leaving early 😅)!
Reposted
New Pre-print! A long-standing question for transcription factor biology is how their chromatin context dependency works in plants. In this collaboration with Fred Berger lab, we present some new ideas not only in Arabidopsis but also in Marchantia. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Conservation of chromatin states and their association with transcription factors in land plants
The complexity of varied modifications of chromatin composition is integrated in archetypal combinations called chromatin states that predict the local potential for transcription. The degree of conse...
www.biorxiv.org
July 21, 2025 at 5:16 PM
New Pre-print! A long-standing question for transcription factor biology is how their chromatin context dependency works in plants. In this collaboration with Fred Berger lab, we present some new ideas not only in Arabidopsis but also in Marchantia. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted
Very happy to share our protocols paper for CELLO-seq. This will make single cell long read RNA-seq more accessible and provides analysis guidelines. We hope this helps the #transposon #TEsky community and folks working on #singleCell isoform and allelic #gene expression. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Long-read RNA sequencing of transposable elements from single cells using CELLO-seq - Nature Protocols
Single-cell long-read RNA sequencing enables the high-fidelity mapping of single-cell expression data from highly sequence-similar transposable elements to unique genomic loci by correcting errors fro...
doi.org
July 16, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Very happy to share our protocols paper for CELLO-seq. This will make single cell long read RNA-seq more accessible and provides analysis guidelines. We hope this helps the #transposon #TEsky community and folks working on #singleCell isoform and allelic #gene expression. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Reposted
I have a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position starting in January to study the evolution of seed gene networks using the fern Ceratopteris! Interested? More info here:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNU179/r...
Closing date 31st July. 🙂
#PlantScience
#PlantSciencejobs
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNU179/r...
Closing date 31st July. 🙂
#PlantScience
#PlantSciencejobs
Research Fellow (Postdoctoral) at University of Birmingham
An opportunity for an academic position as a Research Fellow (Postdoctoral) is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.
www.jobs.ac.uk
July 10, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I have a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position starting in January to study the evolution of seed gene networks using the fern Ceratopteris! Interested? More info here:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNU179/r...
Closing date 31st July. 🙂
#PlantScience
#PlantSciencejobs
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNU179/r...
Closing date 31st July. 🙂
#PlantScience
#PlantSciencejobs
Reposted
I’m sharing my very personal story to encourage everyone to participate in and celebrate Pride month. All our voices are needed to protect diversity and support the queer community. #PRIDEmonth 🌈.
rootandshoot.org/forever-prid...
rootandshoot.org/forever-prid...
June 7, 2025 at 5:34 PM
I’m sharing my very personal story to encourage everyone to participate in and celebrate Pride month. All our voices are needed to protect diversity and support the queer community. #PRIDEmonth 🌈.
rootandshoot.org/forever-prid...
rootandshoot.org/forever-prid...
Reposted
Grateful to share that our study on "The genetic architecture of cell type–specific cis regulation in maize" is now published in @science.org! Huge thank you to all co-authors and the 4 tough, but fair, reviewers who all helped to improve the study 🌽🧬 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The genetic architecture of cell type–specific cis regulation in maize
Gene expression and complex phenotypes are determined by the activity of cis-regulatory elements. However, an understanding of how extant genetic variants affect cis regulation remains limited. Here, ...
www.science.org
April 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Grateful to share that our study on "The genetic architecture of cell type–specific cis regulation in maize" is now published in @science.org! Huge thank you to all co-authors and the 4 tough, but fair, reviewers who all helped to improve the study 🌽🧬 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Thanks Max!! 😁😁
April 12, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Thanks Max!! 😁😁
A putative 4mC methyltransferase is found in rotifers (N4CMT) that's also thought to have arisen through horizontal gene transfer from bacteria which we talk about briefly in the paper. Wouldn't be surprised if there are others examples out there to be found!
April 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
A putative 4mC methyltransferase is found in rotifers (N4CMT) that's also thought to have arisen through horizontal gene transfer from bacteria which we talk about briefly in the paper. Wouldn't be surprised if there are others examples out there to be found!
Thanks Jake!! 😄
April 10, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Thanks Jake!! 😄
Thanks Sean!! 😁😁😁
April 10, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Thanks Sean!! 😁😁😁
Thanks Li! 😎
April 10, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Thanks Li! 😎
Thanks Tatsuya!! :)
April 10, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Thanks Tatsuya!! :)
#DNA #methylation #4mC #epigenetics #germline #Marchantia #sperm #fertility #chromatin #reproduction #plantbiology #evolution
April 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM
This work completes a story that started with strange bisulfite-seq anomalies during my PhD and ends with the discovery of a new epigenetic layer in eukaryotic reproduction.
Huge thanks to all co-authors, collaborators, and especially Xiaoqi Feng for guidance throughout.
13/13
Huge thanks to all co-authors, collaborators, and especially Xiaoqi Feng for guidance throughout.
13/13
April 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM
This work completes a story that started with strange bisulfite-seq anomalies during my PhD and ends with the discovery of a new epigenetic layer in eukaryotic reproduction.
Huge thanks to all co-authors, collaborators, and especially Xiaoqi Feng for guidance throughout.
13/13
Huge thanks to all co-authors, collaborators, and especially Xiaoqi Feng for guidance throughout.
13/13
In summary, our study establishes:
4mC is a functional DNA modification in eukaryotes
MpDN4MT1a is a eukaryotic 4mC writer
5mC and 4mC mark distinct chromatin domains in sperm
4mC coordinates transcriptional shutdown, chromatin compaction, sperm motility, and fertility
12/13
4mC is a functional DNA modification in eukaryotes
MpDN4MT1a is a eukaryotic 4mC writer
5mC and 4mC mark distinct chromatin domains in sperm
4mC coordinates transcriptional shutdown, chromatin compaction, sperm motility, and fertility
12/13
April 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM
In summary, our study establishes:
4mC is a functional DNA modification in eukaryotes
MpDN4MT1a is a eukaryotic 4mC writer
5mC and 4mC mark distinct chromatin domains in sperm
4mC coordinates transcriptional shutdown, chromatin compaction, sperm motility, and fertility
12/13
4mC is a functional DNA modification in eukaryotes
MpDN4MT1a is a eukaryotic 4mC writer
5mC and 4mC mark distinct chromatin domains in sperm
4mC coordinates transcriptional shutdown, chromatin compaction, sperm motility, and fertility
12/13
We also propose that 4mC could act as a paternal imprint—for example, guiding PRC2 targeting after fertilization. This may explain why loss of paternal 4mC reduces embryo viability and disrupts development.
11/13
11/13
April 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM
We also propose that 4mC could act as a paternal imprint—for example, guiding PRC2 targeting after fertilization. This may explain why loss of paternal 4mC reduces embryo viability and disrupts development.
11/13
11/13
Why deposit 4mC in Marchantia sperm?
We see no evidence of dual-modified 4,5mC, suggesting that 5mC blocks 4mC. This creates a clear division: 4mC marks genes, 5mC marks repeats.
This allows global methylation for compaction while preserving the TE-specific 5mC signature.
10/13
We see no evidence of dual-modified 4,5mC, suggesting that 5mC blocks 4mC. This creates a clear division: 4mC marks genes, 5mC marks repeats.
This allows global methylation for compaction while preserving the TE-specific 5mC signature.
10/13
April 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Why deposit 4mC in Marchantia sperm?
We see no evidence of dual-modified 4,5mC, suggesting that 5mC blocks 4mC. This creates a clear division: 4mC marks genes, 5mC marks repeats.
This allows global methylation for compaction while preserving the TE-specific 5mC signature.
10/13
We see no evidence of dual-modified 4,5mC, suggesting that 5mC blocks 4mC. This creates a clear division: 4mC marks genes, 5mC marks repeats.
This allows global methylation for compaction while preserving the TE-specific 5mC signature.
10/13
The motility defect is rescued by reintroducing wild-type MpDN4MT1a.
By contrast, sperm from global 5mC mutants show none of these distinctive phenotypes.
9/13
By contrast, sperm from global 5mC mutants show none of these distinctive phenotypes.
9/13
April 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM
The motility defect is rescued by reintroducing wild-type MpDN4MT1a.
By contrast, sperm from global 5mC mutants show none of these distinctive phenotypes.
9/13
By contrast, sperm from global 5mC mutants show none of these distinctive phenotypes.
9/13
We now know that 4mC is essential for multiple aspects of sperm function.
Sperm lacking 4mC are motility-defective, outcompeted by wild-type sperm, and produce developmentally compromised embryos.
8/13
Sperm lacking 4mC are motility-defective, outcompeted by wild-type sperm, and produce developmentally compromised embryos.
8/13
April 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM
We now know that 4mC is essential for multiple aspects of sperm function.
Sperm lacking 4mC are motility-defective, outcompeted by wild-type sperm, and produce developmentally compromised embryos.
8/13
Sperm lacking 4mC are motility-defective, outcompeted by wild-type sperm, and produce developmentally compromised embryos.
8/13