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Epigenetic modifications and regulation

Guest Editors:
Erin M. Green: University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
Zhe Liang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China
Kevin A. Murach: The University of Arkansas, USA
Rajeev Taliyan: Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India
Maojun Wang: Huazhong Agricultural University, China


 BMC Biology called for submissions to our Collection on epigenetic modifications and regulation. This Collection welcomed research and methodology articles providing insights on the biology of epigenetics in all areas, from the biochemistry and metabolism of chemical groups involved in nucleic acid modifications, to the regulation of such modifications, and its function and variation in higher complexity systems, from cellular to organismal and ecological.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Erin M. Green: University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA

Dr. Green is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Current research in the Green Lab at UMBC investigates the role for protein post-translational modifications in chromatin and cellular signaling pathways particularly in pathways that support cell survival and adaptation to stress.
 

Zhe Liang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China

Dr. Liang works at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, where he started his own lab at the Biotechnology Research Institute. His group’s research focuses on RNA modification, and  single-cell technologies in plants and their applications in crop improvement.
 

Kevin A. Murach: The University of Arkansas, USA

Dr. Murach is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas and leads the Molecular Muscle Mass Regulation Laboratory. His research broadly pertains to adult skeletal muscle mass regulation in the context of exercise, aging, and disease. Dr. Murach uses human muscle samples, conditional and inducible genetic mouse models, cell culture approaches, and single cell/nucleus techniques to address his research questions.
 

Rajeev Taliyan: Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India

Dr. Taliyan is an Associate Professor in the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), India. He has vast experience in the field of neuropharmacology, cardiovascular pharmacology, epigentics and genomics, and drug toxicity studies. Dr. Taliyan is also expert in pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic studies, mRNA based therapy, and gene delivery based therapeutic intervention using lentivirus and AAV vector. In his career, he received several awards, and he is also currently working as Member secretary for Institutional Animal Ethics committee and Institutional Human ethics committee, BITS Pilani, India.
 

Maojun Wang: Huazhong Agricultural University, China

Dr. Wang is a professor in Huazhong Agricultural University and a principal investigator in National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement. His group uses the cotton genus as a research model to investigate the regulatory mechanism of single-cell differentiation and development in plants, committed to improving fiber quality in cotton. He also has interests in the intertwining relationship between genome size evolution and reorganization of higher-order chromatin structure in plants. He extends his research to address some fundamental scientific questions in polyploid plants, such as the underlying mechanism of polyploid advantage in changing environments, using multidisciplinary approaches such as genomics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, genome editing and artificial intelligence.
 

About the collection

 BMC Biology is calling for submissions to our Collection on epigenetic modifications and regulation. The wide application of ‘single-cell’ and ‘omics’-based methodologies has recently extended our understanding of the non-genetic mechanisms underlying the biology of model and non-model organisms, and the basis of disease.

This Collection welcomes research and methodology articles providing insights on the biology of epigenetics in all areas, from the biochemistry and metabolism of chemical groups involved in nucleic acid modifications, to the regulation of such modifications, and its function and variation in higher complexity systems, from cellular to organismal and ecological.


Image credit: oonal / Getty Images / iStock

  1. Physical activity is well known for its multiple health benefits and although the knowledge of the underlying molecular mechanisms is increasing, our understanding of the role of epigenetics in long-term train...

    Authors: Carla Geiger, Maria Needhamsen, Eric B. Emanuelsson, Jessica Norrbom, Karen Steindorf, Carl Johan Sundberg, Stefan M. Reitzner and Malene E. Lindholm
    Citation: BMC Biology 2024 22:147
  2. ARID1A, a subunit of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, is thought to play a significant role both in tumor suppression and tumor initiation, which is highly dependent upon context. Previous studies hav...

    Authors: Tianyu Zhu, Qian Li, Zhe Zhang, Jiahao Shi, Yongyun Li, Feng Zhang, Lingjie Li, Xin Song, Jianfeng Shen and Renbing Jia
    Citation: BMC Biology 2024 22:132
  3. Bacterial epigenetics is a rapidly expanding research field. DNA methylation by diverse bacterial methyltransferases (MTases) contributes to genomic integrity and replication, and many recent studies extended ...

    Authors: Lubna Patel, Florent Ailloud, Sebastian Suerbaum and Christine Josenhans
    Citation: BMC Biology 2024 22:125
  4. Regulation of transcription by DNA methylation in 5’-CpG-3’ context is a widespread mechanism allowing differential expression of genetically identical cells to persist throughout development. Consequently, di...

    Authors: Jesper Boman, Anna Qvarnström and Carina F. Mugal
    Citation: BMC Biology 2024 22:124
  5. The nuclear lamina links the nuclear membrane to chromosomes and plays a crucial role in regulating chromatin states and gene expression. However, current knowledge of nuclear lamina in plants is limited compa...

    Authors: Yaxin Cao, Hengyu Yan, Minghao Sheng, Yue Liu, Xinyue Yu, Zhongqiu Li, Wenying Xu and Zhen Su
    Citation: BMC Biology 2024 22:80
  6. Regulation of transcription is central to the emergence of new cell types during development, and it often involves activation of genes via proximal and distal regulatory regions. The activity of regulatory el...

    Authors: Irina Abnizova, Carine Stapel, Rene te Boekhorst, Jimmy Tsz Hang Lee and Martin Hemberg
    Citation: BMC Biology 2024 22:78
  7. DNA methylation has been documented to play vital roles in diseases and biological processes. In bovine, little is known about the regulatory roles of DNA methylation alterations on production and health trait...

    Authors: Mengqi Wang, Nathalie Bissonnette, Mario Laterrière, Pier-Luc Dudemaine, David Gagné, Jean-Philippe Roy, Marc-André Sirard and Eveline M. Ibeagha-Awemu
    Citation: BMC Biology 2024 22:65
  8. Surrogate production by germline stem cell transplantation is a powerful method to produce donor-derived gametes via a host, a practice known as surrogacy. The gametes produced by surrogates are often analysed...

    Authors: Rigolin Nayak, Roman Franěk, Audrey Laurent and Martin Pšenička
    Citation: BMC Biology 2024 22:39
  9. Due to interindividual variation in the cellular composition of the human cortex, it is essential that covariates that capture these differences are included in epigenome-wide association studies using bulk ti...

    Authors: Eilis Hannon, Emma L. Dempster, Jonathan P. Davies, Barry Chioza, Georgina E. T. Blake, Joe Burrage, Stefania Policicchio, Alice Franklin, Emma M. Walker, Rosemary A. Bamford, Leonard C. Schalkwyk and Jonathan Mill
    Citation: BMC Biology 2024 22:17
  10. Sex differences in microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles have been found across multiple tissues. Skeletal muscle is one of the most sex-biased tissues of the body. MiRNAs are necessary for development and have...

    Authors: Danielle Hiam, Shanie Landen, Macsue Jacques, Sarah Voisin, Séverine Lamon and Nir Eynon
    Citation: BMC Biology 2023 21:273
  11. Epigenetic modifications that exhibit circadian oscillations also promote circadian oscillations of gene expression. Brassica napus is a heterozygous polyploid species that has undergone distant hybridization and...

    Authors: Zhifei Xue, Baibai Gao, Guoting Chen, Jie Liu, Weizhi Ouyang, Mohamed Frahat Foda, Qing Zhang, Xiwen Zhang, Wei Zhang, Mingyue Guo, Xingwang Li and Bin Yi
    Citation: BMC Biology 2023 21:241
  12. Health outcomes among children born prematurely are known to be sexually dimorphic, with male infants often more affected, yet the mechanism behind this observation is not clear. CpG methylation levels in the ...

    Authors: Hudson P. Santos Jr., Adam E. Enggasser, Jeliyah Clark, Kyle Roell, Vasyl Zhabotynsky, William Adam Gower, Diana Yanni, Nou Gao Yang, Lisa Washburn, Semsa Gogcu, Carmen J. Marsit, Karl Kuban, T. Michael O’Shea and Rebecca C. Fry
    Citation: BMC Biology 2023 21:173
  13. Cip1-interacting zinc finger protein 1 (CIZ1) forms RNA-dependent protein assemblies that stabilise epigenetic state, notable at the inactive X chromosome in females. CIZ1 has been linked with a range of human...

    Authors: Olivia G. Dobbs, Rosemary H. C. Wilson, Katherine Newling, Justin F.-X. Ainscough and Dawn Coverley
    Citation: BMC Biology 2023 21:175
  14. Epigenetic processes are proposed to be a mechanism regulating gene expression during phenotypic plasticity. However, environmentally induced changes in DNA methylation exhibit little-to-no association with di...

    Authors: Samuel N. Bogan, Marie E. Strader and Gretchen E. Hofmann
    Citation: BMC Biology 2023 21:149

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. 

To submit your manuscript to this Collection, please use our online submission system. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Epigenetic modifications and regulation" from the dropdown menu.

All articles submitted to Collections are peer reviewed in line with the journal’s standard peer review policy and are subject to all of the journal’s standard editorial and publishing policies. This includes the journal’s policy on competing interests. 

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editor or Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.