Pierre Bourguet
@p_bourguet
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Biologist @gmivienna studying transposon silencing, heterochromatin and histone variants in the Berger group. https://t.co/GPzagMXgZ3
Vienna, Austria
Joined December 2018
I thank all co-authors who contributed, the support at the GMI & VBCF, and reviewers who improved the paper.
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I believe our study brings important insights into CDCA7’s relationship to DDM1 / HELLS and should be relevant in the context of recent papers on CDCA7 (links below).
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This model fits with two observations: - CDCA7 zinc-finger domain binds hemi-methylated CG sites (which are created at replication forks) and prefers nucleosomal DNA over linker DNA. - While most eukaryotes have HELLS / DDM1, lineages that lost DNA methylation also lost CDCA7.
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To conclude, we propose a model of epigenetic inheritance where DDM1 functions are temporally separated during DNA replication, and CDCA7 predominantly promotes mCG maintenance, with minimal contribution to other DDM1 functions.
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The worldwide distribution of CDCA7α alleles suggests it may contribute to local adaptation. We found these alleles correlate with an altitudinal cline in the mountains of Spain and are associated with changes in seed size, an adaptive trait for plants.
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In natural populations, a 26-bp indel in the CDCA7α promoter acts as a rheostat, tuning its expression. This polymorphism affects the level of CG methylation and transposon silencing across the entire genome.
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Quantitatively, CDCA7 disproportionately impacts mCG, indicating the predominant function of CDCA7 is to promote DDM1-dependent mCG. An important detail here is that we used ratios of mutant / WT to objectively compare methylation contexts.
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We also mapped the physical interaction, showing the N-terminal domain of CDCA7α binds directly to the H2A.W-binding domain of DDM1.
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The absence of CDCA7 has a weaker impact than DDM1 KO, showing DDM1 can partially act without CDCA7. Conversely, we provide lots of genetic evidence that CDCA7 function exclusively through the DDM1 pathway.
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We show that two A. thaliana genes, CDCA7α and CDCA7ß, redundantly contribute to all known DDM1 functions in heterochromatin maintenance. cdca7α/ß mutants phenocopy ddm1 mutants, affecting DNA methylation, histone variants and PTMs.
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The Funabiki lab @HironoriFunabi1 has shown that Xenopus CDCA7 is a cofactor of HELLS / LSH (DDM1 in plants). While HELLS / DDM1 maintains both DNA methylation and heterochromatic histone variants, the function of CDCA7 remains unclear. https://t.co/uJ5PmbEmiR
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https://t.co/7z29D251Kg Using CG methylation (mCG) of heterochromatic transposons as a trait for GWAS, we identified a major genetic association to an uncharacterized gene: a plant ortholog of vertebrate CDCA7.
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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? 🧵👇
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Happy to share my invited mini-review in Current Opinion in Plant Biology: “Meiotic recombination and advances in quantitative trait mapping.” It highlights key regulators of meiotic crossovers and how increasing COs can enhance QTL mapping resolution. 🔗 https://t.co/WYsjmr0ZBg
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🌿⚖️ Growth or defense? A new study in @ScienceAdvances shows how the PAF1 complex helps plants toggle between growth and immune responses by regulating gene expression. 📖 https://t.co/xuV5YkSLRJ 🔬 Collaboration between Wuhan Univesity (@WHU_1893) & @CNRS_Alsace
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Color changing flowers 🧬🎨- attempt #2 Older flowers (bottom) show dark red/ orange tints whereas young buds (top) display strong fuchsia color. Getting closer..
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🎉 Congratulations to Pauline Julien, Professor at IBMP, who recently defended her HDR on epigenetic reprogramming: from reproduction to defense 🌱👏
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Can epigenetic variation drive adaptation in nature? 🌱 A new study shows that gene body DNA methylation polymorphism shapes gene expression, traits, and environmental responses — revealing epigenetics as a force in evolution!
nature.com
Nature Plants - This study shows that epigenetic gene body DNA methylation regulates transcription and accounts for much of its variance in the Arabidopsis population, efficiently identifies genes...
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Our new Nature Plants paper is out (and we’re on the cover)!👉 https://t.co/rhOi4753mY By combining scRNA-seq with conserved TF binding (multiDAP) we define gene regulatory networks for 65 cell types across 4 tissues in a wide range of flowering plants!
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