Frederic Berger

Chromatin architecture and function

Research Focus

More than a simple scaffold for the DNA, the conserved proteins histones participate to regulations of genome activities. We explore how variants of core histones impact on genome expression, organization and inheritance. We also study interactions between histone variants with other chromatin modifications, contributing epigenetic landscapes that modulate cellular events in somatic and reproductive tissues.

Selected Publications

Osakabe A, Lorkovic ZJ, Kobayashi W, et al. (2018) Histone H2A variants confer specific properties to nucleosomes and impact on chromatin accessibility. Nucleic Acids Res 46(15):7675-85.

Jiang D and Berger F (2017) DNA replication-coupled histone modification maintains Polycomb gene silencing in plants. Science 357(6356):1146-9.

Lorković Z, Park C, Goiser M, et al. (2017) Compartmentalization of DNA Damage Response between Heterochromatin and Euchromatin Is Mediated by Distinct H2A Histone Variants. Curr Biol 27(8):1192-9.

Wollmann H, Stroud H, Yelagandula R, et al. (2017) The histone H3 variant H3.3 regulates gene body DNA methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Genome Biol 18(1):94.

Yelagandula R, Stroud H, Holec S, et al. (2014) The histone variant H2A.W defines heterochromatin and promotes chromatin condensation in Arabidopsis. Cell 158(1):98-109.