Qing Li, Ph.D.
Epigenetics Laboratory
Professor, College of Life Sciences, Peking University
tel：
E-mail：li.qing@pku.edu.cn
1、Chromatin Replication
2、Epigenetics Inheritance
3、Genome Stability Maintenance
My research aims to dissect the mechanisms of chromatin replication, to determine its role during epigenetic inheritance, and to explore the connections among epigenetic inheritance, genome stability, and cell fate determination. One of the central questions in biology is how epigenetic states defined by chromatin organization are transmitted into daughter cells during mitotic cell pision. The “initial” step for epigenetic inheritance occurs during the S phase of the cell cycle, while the entire genome accurately replicated, the chromatin landscape has to be reproduced on newly synthesized DNA to restore epigenetic states. Accumulating evidence is suggesting that these intertwined biological processes are fundamental for normal development, and further, exert profound influences on human health. My laboratory has been studying the molecular mechanisms that regulate chromatin replication and epigenetic inheritance. Specifically, using both yeast and mammalian cells, we have focused on determining how nucleosomes, the basic repeating units of chromatin, are assembled in a process coupled to DNA replication, and we have addressed questions about how chromatin replication affects both genome stability and heterochromatin silencing. These studies have each shed light on the molecular basis of chromatin replication, and each has advanced our knowledge of the fundamental mechanisms at work in epigenetic inheritance and chromosome stability.
Li NN, Gao Y, Zhang YJ, Yu DQ, Lin JW, Feng JX, Li J, Xu ZC, Zhang YY, Dang SY, Zhou KD, Liu Y, Li XD, Tye BK, Li Q, Gao N, Zhai YL. (2024) Parental histone transfer caught at the replication fork. Nature, 627: 890-897.
Yu JT, Zhang YJ, Fang YM, Paulo JA, Yaghoubi D, Hua X, Shipkovenska G, Toda T, Zhang ZG, Gygi SP, Li Q, Moazed D. (2024) A replisome-associated histone H3-H4 chaperone required for epigenetic inheritance. Cell, 187: 5010-5028.
Shi GJ, Yang CQ, Wu JL, Lei Y, Hu JZ, Feng JX, Li Q. (2024) DNA polymerase δ subunit Pol32 binds histone H3-H4 and couples nucleosome assembly with Okazaki fragment processing.Sci. Adv., 10: eado1739.
Zhao H, Li D, Xiao X, Liu GF, Su XY, Yan ZX, Gu SJ, Wang YZ, Li GH, Feng JX, Li W, Chen P, Yang JY, Li Q. (2024) Pluripotency state transition of embryonic stem cells requires the turnover of histone chaperone FACT on chromatin. iScience, 27: 108537.
Kang ZH, Li RM, Liu C, Dong XZ, Hu YX, Xu L, Liu XY, Xiang YF, Gao LM, Si WZ, Wang L, Li Q, Zhang L, Wang H, Yang XR, Liu J. (2024) m6A-modified cenRNA stabilizes CENPA to ensure centromere integrity in cancer cells. Cell, 187: 6035-6054.
Liu YL, Zhangding ZR, Liu XH, Gan TT, Ai C, Wu JC , Liang HX , Chen MH, Guo YF, Lu RS, Jiang YP, Ji X, Gao N , Kong DC, Li Q, Hu JZ. (2024) Fork coupling directs DNA replication elongation and termination. Science, 383: 1215-1222.
Wang XZ, Tang YT, Xu JW, Leng H, Shi GJ, Hu ZF, Wu JL, Xiu YW, Feng JX, Li Q. (2023) The N-terminus of Spt16 anchors FACT to MCM2-7 for parental histone recycling. Nucl. Acids Res., 51: 11549-1567.
Du WL, Shi GJ, Shan CM, Li ZM, Zhu B, Jia ST, Li Q, Zhang ZG. (2022) Mechanisms of chromatin-based epigenetic inheritance. Sci. China-Life Sci., 65: 2162-2190.
Wang JC, Sang YC, Jin SX, Wang XZ, Azad GK, McCormick MA, Kennedy BK, Li Q, Wang JB, Zhang XN, Zhang Y, Huang YY. (2022) Single-cell RNA-seq reveals early heterogeneity during aging in yeast. Aging Cell., 21: e13712.
Leng H, Liu SF, Lei Y, Tang YT, Gu SJ, Hu JZ, Chen S, Feng JX, Li Q. (2021) FACT interacts with Set3 HDAC and fine-tunes GAL1 transcription in response to environmental stimulation. Nucleic Acids Res., 49: 5502- 5519.
Xu XL, Xu YX, Guo RY, Xu R, Fu CC, Xing MT, Sasanuma H, Li Q, Takata M, Takeda S, Guo R, Xu DY. (2021) Fanconi anemia proteins participate in a break-induced-replication-like pathway to counter replication stress. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol., 28: 487-500.
Liu Y, Ai C, Gan TT, Wu JC, Jiang YP, Liu XH, Lu RS, Gao N, Li Q, Ji X, Hu JZ. (2021) Transcription shapes DNA replication initiation to preserve genome integrity. Genome Biol.,22: 176.
Peng HY, Zhang SM, Peng YH, Zhu SY, Zhao X, Zhao XC, Yang SS, Liu GX, Dong Y, Gan XL, Li Q, Zhang XH, Pei HD, Chen XF. (2021)Yeast Bromodomain Factor 1 and Its Human Homolog TAF1 Play Conserved Roles in Promoting Homologous Recombination.Adv. Sci., 8: e2100753.
Zhang YT, Ou XM, Wang XZ, Sun DJ, Zhou X Y, Wu XF, Li Q, Li L. (2021) Structure of the mitochondrial TIM22 complex from yeast. Cell Res., 31: 366-368.
Zhang WS, Feng JX, Li Q. (2020) The replisome guides nucleosome assembly during DNA replication. Cell Biosci., 10: 37.
Wan YCE, Leung TCS, Ding DB, Sun XL, Zhu L, Kang TZE, Yang D, Zhang YC, Qian CM, Huen MSY, Li Q, Chow MZY, Zheng ZL, Han JH, Goel A, Wang X, Ishibashi T, Chan KM. (2020) Cancer-associated histone mutation H2BG53D disrupts DNA-histone octamer interaction and promotes oncogenic phenotypes. Signal Transduct. Target. Ther., 5: 27.
Jianxun Feng, Zhenxin Yan, Wenshuo Zhang, Zaifeng Hu, Yujie Zhang, Xiaoyu Su，Jiale Wu，Yuantao Tang, Guanzhong Jiao, Chaoqi Yang, Hao Pan, Yu Chen, Shichen Geng, Xiangyi Yan, Huimei Xu
