Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Yuke Geng

Yuke Geng, co-first author of Rice and Arabidopsis homologs of yeast CHROMOSOME TRANSMISSION FIDELITY PROTEIN 4 commonly interact with Polycomb complexes but exert divergent regulatory functions

Current Position: Laboratory technician, college of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China

Education: PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, China Agricultural University

Non-scientific Interests: reading, listening to music

Brief bio: In 2015, I joined Research Fellow Xiaofeng Gu ‘s research group at the Institute of Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences as a postdoctoral researcher. My research topic is epigenetic modification regulation in rice. In the second half of 2016, based on DRW1, a dwarf mutant material of rice cultivar ZH11 screened by Dr. Ying Yang from Huazhong Agricultural University, the functional mechanism of DRW1 was analyzed. It was found that DRW1 can also directly interact with OsCLF, OsLHP1 and OsSWN, members of the histone methyltransferase complex PGs like Arabidopsis homologue, and the level of H3K27Me3 in drw1 seedlings significantly is lower than that of wild-type ZH11. DRW1 is expressed in the tissues and cells with exuberant division. Flow cytometry analysis showed that drw1 significantly increased the number of cells in the S phase of cell cycle than wild-type ZH11, resulting in cell cycle arrest, plant dwarfing and organ reduction. OsKRP1 and OsKRP5 were identified by ChIP-qPCR as targets of DRW1 and H3K27me3 modification, and their expression in drw1 plants was significantly higher than that of wild-type ZH11, inhibiting the cell cycle process. OsDRW1 also interacts with OsGINS, a member of CMG helicase, and OsDNAP, a protein of rice polymerase α. Comet electrophoresis showed that drw1 plants possess severe DNA strands damage, which proved that DRW1 regulates DNA replication function in S phase of cell cycle and maintains DNA strands integrity. During the experiment and writing, I was lucky to get the great help of Dr. Zhang Pingxian of our research group, and finally finished the work at the end of 2020 and published it in The Plant Cell. At present, I work for the Experimental Center of the college of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China. My research interest is comparison of the regulation differences of histone deacetylase in rice varieties of different regions.

 

姓名：耿玉珂

目前职位：中央民族大学生命与环境科学学院实验员

教育背景：中国农业大学，生化与分子生物学 博士

兴趣爱好：阅读、听音乐

个人研究简介：2015年加入中国农业科学院生物技术研究所谷晓峰研究员课题组从事博士后研究，主要研究方向为水稻表观遗传学调控。

2016下半年，基于华中农业大学杨莹博士筛选出的水稻ZH11品种矮小突变体材料drw1基础上，开始对DRW1进行了功能机制分析。发现DRW1也能够直接与组蛋白甲基转移酶复合体PGs的成员蛋白OsCLF、OsLHP1、OsSWN进行互作，drw1导致幼苗时期H3K27me3 水平显著低于野生型ZH11。DRW1在分裂旺盛的组织和细胞中表达。流式细胞分析表明drw1在细胞周期S期细胞数目显著高于野生型ZH11，导致细胞周期停滞、植株矮化及器官减小。利用ChIP -qPCR鉴定出细胞周期抑制子Kip相关基因OsKRP1和 OsKRP5是DRW1和H3K27me3富集并修饰的靶调控因子，它们在drw1植株中表达显著高于野生型ZH11，抑制细胞周期进程。同时还发现OsDRW1也能够与CMG解旋酶成员OsGINS以及水稻聚合酶α蛋白OsDNAP进行互作。彗星电泳显示drw1植株具有显著的DNA链损伤，证明DRW1调节细胞周期S期DNA复制功能及维持DNA链完整性。在实验和写作期间，有幸得到本课题组张平贤博士的大力帮助，终于在2020年底将此工作收尾，并发表于The Plant Cell。

目前在中央民族大学生命与环境科学学院实验中心工作，主要研究方向为组蛋白去乙酰化酶在不同地区水稻品种中的调控差异比较。