Yuehui HE
Email: yhhe(at)pku(dot).edu(dot).cn
Tel: +86-10-62755866
Research Area:
Chromatin modifications and remodeling play critical roles in chromatin-templated processes such as gene expression. The Laboratory of Plant Environmental Epigenetics explores epigenetic or chromatin-mediated mechanisms for plant-environment interactions, with a focus on environmental regulation of the timing of developmental transition to flowering (flowering time).
When to flower is often timed by seasonal cues including day-length changes and/or winter cold to ensure that flowering occurs at a season favorable for seed production. Many overwintering plants grown at high latitudes acquire competence to flower in spring or early summer, through a physiological process termed as vernalization. Vernalization-responsive plants often remember past winter cold experience when temperature rises in spring to enable flowering. We are interested in how epigenetic ‘memory of winter cold’ is established, maintained and subsequently erased (reset) in diverse plants, with a focus on molecular epigenetic mechanisms underlying vernalization regulation in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the temperate cereal wheat (Triticum aestivum). In addition, we are interested in molecular mechanisms underlying photoperiodic induction of flowering in vernalization-responsive plants including Arabidopsis and wheat.
Selected Publications:
1. Luo X, Ou Y, Li R, and He Y. (2020) Maternal transmission of the epigenetic 'memory of winter cold' in Arabidopsis. Nature Plants, 6: 1211-1218.
2. Tao Z, Hu H, Luo X, Jia B, Du J*, He Y.* (2019) Embryonic resetting of the parental vernalized state by two B3 domain transcription factors in Arabidopsis. Nature Plants, 5: 424-435.
3. Li Z, Fu X, Wang Y, Liu R and He Y. (2018) Polycomb-mediated gene silencing by the BAH-EMF1 complex in plants. Nature Genetics, 50: 1254-1261.
4. Li Z, Jiang D and He Y. (2018) FRIGIDA establishes a local chromosomal environment for FLOWERING LOCUS C mRNA production. Nature Plants, 4: 836-846.
5. Z. Li, Y. Ou, J. Li and He Y. (2018) Brassinosteroid signaling recruits Histone 3 lysine-27 demethylation activity to FLOWERING LOCUS C chromatin to inhibit the floral transition in Arabidopsis. Molecular Plant, 11: 1135-1146.
6. Y. He & Li Z. (2018) Epigenetic environmental memories in plants: establishment, maintenance, and reprogramming. Trends in Genetics, 34: 856-866.
7. Z. Tao, L. Shen, X. Gu, Y. Wang, H. Yu & He Y. (2017) Embryonic epigenetic reprogramming by a pioneer transcription factor in plants. Nature, 551: 124-128.
8. Yuan W, Luo X, Li Z, Yang W, Wang Y, Liu R, Du J & He Y. (2016) A cis cold memory element and a trans epigenome reader mediate Polycomb silencing of FLC by vernalization in Arabidopsis. Nature Genetics, 48: 1527-1534.
9. Li Z, Jiang D, Fu X, Luo X, Liu R & He Y. (2016) Integration of histone methylations with RNA processing by the nuclear mRNA Cap Binding Complex. Nature Plants, 2: 16015.