qianwen sun-凯发k8
associate professor
2022-present associate professor (tenured), school of life sciences, tsinghua university, beijing china
2018-2021 associate professor (tenure track), school of life sciences, tsinghua university, beijing china
2014-2018 assistant professor (tenure track), school of life sciences, tsinghua university, beijing china
2014-present principal investigator (renewed in 2018), center for life sciences, beijing china
2009-2014 postdoctoral fellow, john innes centre, norwich uk
2004-2009 ph.d. huazhong agricultural university, wuhan, china
2000-2004 b.sc. huazhong agricultural university, wuhan, china
research interest
we are interested in different aspects of genome regulation, and mainly focus on r-loop biology. r-loop is the three-stranded chromatin structure, comprising with one strand dna single-stranded and another strand rna:dna hybrid, plays various and essential biological functions in many organisms. we use arabidopsis and other organisms (such as e coli and yeast) as model systems to investigate the fundamental questions in r-loop biology, such as regulatory mechanisms of r-loops formation, stabilization and resolution, and how r-loops are able to affect transcription and genome maintenance.
selected publications
(* corresponding or co-corresponding authors; # co-first authors)
1. weifeng zhang, lingling cheng, kuan li, leiming xie, jinyao ji, xue lei, anjie jiang, chunlai chen, haitao li, pilong li and qianwen sun*. evolutional heterochromatin condensation delineates chromocenter formation and retrotransposon silencing in plants. nature plants. 2024. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-024-01746-4.
2. weifeng zhang, zhuo yang, wenjie wang and qianwen sun*. primase promotes the competition between transcription and replication on the same template strand resulting in dna damage. nature communications. 2024; 15, 73. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44443-0.
3. qin li, jincong zhou, shuai li, weifeng zhang, yingxue du, kuan li, yingxiang wang and qianwen sun*. dna polymerase ε harmonizes topological states and r-loops formation to maintain genome integrity in arabidopsis. nature communications. 2023; 14, 7763. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43680-7.
4. jincong zhou, xue lei, sarfraz shafiq, weifeng zhang, qin li, kuan li, jiafu zhu, zhicheng dong, xin-jian he and qianwen sun*. ddm1-mediated r-loop resolution and h2a.z exclusion facilitates heterochromatin formation in arabidopsis. science advances. 2023 aug;9(32):eadg2699. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adg2699.
5. wei xu#*, chao liu#, zhe zhang#, changbin sun, qin li, kuan li, hui jiang*, wei li* and qianwen sun*. detail-seq is an ultra-efficient and convenient method for meiotic dna break profiling in multiple organisms. sci china life sci, 2023 june; 66(6): 1392–1407. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-022-2277-y.
6. kuan li#, zhenzhen wu#, jincong zhou#, wei xu, ling li, chao liu, wei li, chengjun zhang* and qianwen sun*. r-loopatlas: an integrated r-loop resource from 254 plant species sustained by a deep-learning-based tool. molecular plant. 2023 mar;16(3):493-496. doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2022.12.012.
7. liu k and sun q*. intragenic trna-promoted r-loops orchestrate transcription interference for plant oxidative stress responses. the plant cell, 2021, 33: 3574–3591.
8. cheng l#, wang w#, yao y#, sun q*. mitochondrial rnase h1 activity regulates r-loop homeostasis to maintain genome integrity and enable early embryogenesis in arabidopsis. plos biology, 2021, 19(8): e3001357.
9. wang w, li k, yang z, hou q, zhao w w, sun q*. rnase h1c collaborates with ssdna binding proteins why1/3 and recombinase reca1 to fulfill the dna damage repair in arabidopsis chloroplasts. nucleic acids research, 2021 jul; 49(12): 6771–6787.
10. yang z, li m, sun q*. rhon1 co-transcriptionally resolves r-loops for arabidopsis chloroplast genome maintenance. cell reports. 2020 jan; 30(1), 243–256.
11. xu w#, li k#, li s#, hou q#, zhang y, liu k and sun q*. the r-loop atlas of arabidopsis development and responses to environmental stimuli. the plant cell, 2020 apr; 32(4):888-903.
12. zhao s#, cheng l#, gao y#, zhang b#, zheng x, wang l, li p*, sun q*, li h*. plant hp1 protein adcp1 links multivalent h3k9 methylation readout to heterochromatin formation. cell research, 2019 jan; 29(1):54-66.
13. yang z#, hou q#, cheng l#, xu w, hong y, li s, sun q*. rnase h1 cooperates with dna gyrases to restrict r-loops and maintain genome integrity in arabidopsis chloroplasts. the plant cell, 2017 oct; 29(10):2478-2497.
14. xu w, xu h, li k, fan y, liu y, yang x*, sun q*. the r-loop is a common chromatin feature of the arabidopsis genome. nature plants, 2017 sep; 3(9):704-714.
15. sun q, csorba t, skourti-stathaki k, proudfoot nj, dean c*. r-loop stabilization represses antisense transcription at the arabidopsis flc locus. science, 2013 may; 340(6132):619-21.
contact information
location：biotechnology building room 4-313 (office), 4-309 (lab)
tel: 86-10-62784002 (office); 62796360 (lab)
e-mail: sunqianwen(a t)mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
