Jonathan Huc: The Plant Cell First Author

Jonathan Huc, first author of “Bypassing reproductive barriers in hybrid seeds using chemically induced epimutagenesis”

Current Position: PhD student in Max Planck Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie (Potsdam, Germany)

Education: High School Diploma in Biotechnologies (ESTBA, Paris, 2017), Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Ecology (Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, 2019), Master’s degree in Integrative Biology and Physiology — Plant sciences program (Université de Paris, Paris, 2021)

Non-scientific Interests: Cinema, Plants, Scuba diving, Hiking, Nature, Running, Travelling

Brief bio: I’ve always been interested in plants. My first two research internships in plant development motivated me to pursue the research field of molecular biology. Since my master’s degree, I’ve been particularly interested in epigenetics and sexual plant reproduction, so I did my master’s internship with Dr. Filipe Borges to work on the epigenetic control of hybridization barriers (triploid block) in Arabidopsis. I recently joined the group of Prof. Claudia Köhler for my PhD, and to continue working on the triploid block. The main biological questions that I aim to understand are: how epigenetic marks determine the development of the embryo and surrounding tissues? What are the underlying mechanisms occurring both in germlines and seeds driving the establishment of these marks? How epigenetic marks variate within populations, and to what extend they can be transmitted to the offspring? In addition, I’m interested in the ecological relevance of the triploid block.