Qianwen SUN Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor
2014- Present Principal Investigator, Tsinghua-Peking Centre for Life Sciences, Beijing, China
2014- Present Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
2009-2014 Post-Doctoral Research Scientist, 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
From 2015 (*corresponding or co-corresponding authors; #co-first authors)
21. Liu K and Sun Q*. Intragenic tRNA-promoted R-loops orchestrate transcription interference for plant oxidative stress responses. The Plant Cell, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab220.
20. 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.
19. Liu Y#, Liu Q#, Su H#, Liu K, Xiao X, Li W, Sun Q, Birchler JA, Han F*. Genome-wide mapping reveals R-loops associated with centromeric repeats in maize. Genome Research, 2021, in press. doi: 10.1101/gr.275270.121.
18. 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.
17. Yan P#, Zunpeng Liu#, Song M#, Wu Z, Xu W, Li K, Ji Q, Wang S, Liu X, Yan K, Esteban R, Ci W, Xie W, Ren J, Belmonte J, Zhang W*, Sun Q*, Qu J*, Liu GH*. Genome-wide R-loop landscapes during cell differentiation and reprogramming. Cell Reports, 2020 Jul 7; 32(1):107870.
16. Li Y#, Song Y#, Xu W#, Li Q#, Wang X, Li K, Wang J, Liu Z, Velychko S, Ye R, Xia Q, Wang L, Guo R, Dong X, Zheng Z, Dai Y, Li H, Yao M, Xue Y, Schöler H, Sun Q*, Yao H*. R-loops Coordinate with SOX2 in Regulating Reprogramming to Pluripotency. Science Advances, 2020 Jun; 6(24), eaba0777.
15. 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.
14. 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.
13. Zhou J#, Liu L#, Li Q, Xu W, Li K, Wang ZW, Sun Q*. Intronic heterochromatin prevents cryptic transcription initiation in Arabidopsis. The Plant Journal. 2020 Mar;101(5):1185-1197.
12. Yang X#, Liu QL#, Xu W#, Zhang YC#, Yang Y, Ju LF, Chen J, Chen YS, Li K, Ren J*, Sun Q*, Yang YG*. m6A promotes R-loop formation to facilitate transcription termination. Cell Research. 2019 Dec; 29(12):1035-1038.
11. Yuan W#, Zhou J#, Tong J#, Zhuo W, Wang L, Li Y, Sun Q*, Qian W*, ALBA protein complex reads genic R-loops to maintain genome stability in Arabidopsis. Science Advances, 2019 May 15;5(5): eaav9040.
10. 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.
9. Cheng L, Shafiq S, Xu W, Sun Q*. EARLY FLOWERING IN SHORT DAYS (EFS) regulates the seed size in Arabidopsis. Sci China Life Sci. 2018 Feb;61(2):214-224.
8. 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.
7. 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.
6.Shafiq S#, Chen C#*, Yang J, Cheng L, Ma F, Widemann E, Sun Q*. DNA Topoisomerase 1 Prevents R-loop Accumulation to Modulate Auxin-Regulated Root Development in Rice. Molecular Plant. 2017 Jun;10(6):821-833.
5.Shafiq S, Li J, Sun Q*. Functions of plants long non-coding RNAs. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2016 Jan;1859(1):155-62.
4.Csorba T#, Questa JI#, Sun Q# and Dean C. Antisense COOLAIR mediates the coordinated switching of chromatin states at FLC during vernalization. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2014. 111:16160-5 (#contributed equally).
3. Sun Q, Csorba T, Skourti-Stathaki K, Proudfoot NJ and Dean C. R-Loop Stabilization Represses Antisense Transcription at the Arabidopsis FLC Locus. Science. 2013. 340:619-21.
2. Sun Q and Zhou DX. Rice jmjC domain-containing gene JMJ706 encodes H3K9 demethylase required for floral organ development. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2008. 105:13679-84.
1. Huang L#, Sun Q#, Qin F, Li C, Zhao Y and Zhou DX. Down-regulation of a SILENT INFORMATION REGULATOR2-related histone deacetylase gene, OsSRT1, induces DNA fragmentation and cell death in rice. Plant Physiol. 2007. 144:1508-19. (#contributed equally).
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
