Chang
LIU
Professor
Institute of Biology, University of Hohenheim, Germany
Chromatin organization
My research focuses on understanding how the vast length of eukaryotic DNA is hierarchically organized within the tiny space of the nucleus, and how this 3D chromatin architecture regulates essential processes such as transcription, DNA replication, recombination, and repair. I am particularly interested in how chromatin packing shapes long-range interactions and links epigenomic and transcriptomic landscapes to genome topology. In plants, where genomes are highly dynamic and diverse, I investigate how chromatin domains are functionally and structurally partitioned and which proteins control local chromatin organization, with the long-term goal of enabling structure-informed plant genome engineering for stable, improved agronomic traits.
We are currently
I
Investigating how plant nuclear lamin proteins regulate chromatin tethering at the nuclear periphery
II
Elucidating the mechanisms of chromatin extrusion in Arabidopsis thaliana
III
Characterizing spatial chromatin organization in the Arabidopsis thaliana pds5a mutant, which exhibits altered chromatin compartmentalization due to enhanced chromatin extrusion (AGILE project)
Five Main Publications
Reactivation of the tRNASer/tRNATyr gene cluster in Arabidopsis thaliana root tips
Guillaume Hummel*§, Priyanka Kumari§, Chenlei Hua, Long Wang, Yan-Xia Mai, Nan Wang, Negjmedin Shala, Emir Can Kaya, Jean Molinier, Jia-Wei Wang, Chang Liu*. (2025) The Plant Cell doi: 10.1093/plcell/koaf137
Mutations of PDS5 genes enhance TAD-like domain formation in Arabidopsis thaliana
Anna-Maria Göbel§, Sida Zhou§, Zhidan Wang, Sofia Tzourtzou, Axel Himmelbach, Shiwei Zheng, Mónica Pradillo, Chang Liu*, and Hua Jiang* (2024) Nature Communications doi:10.1038/s41467-024-53760-x
The plant nuclear lamina disassembles to regulate plant genome folding in stress conditions
Nan Wang§, Zhidan Wang§, Sofia Tzourtzou, Xu Wang, Xiuli Bi, Julia Leimeister, Linhao Xu, Takuya Sakamoto, Sachihiro Matsunaga, Andreas Schaller, Hua Jiang, and Chang Liu*. (2023) Nature Plants doi: 10.1038/s41477-023-01457-2
Three-dimensional chromatin structure shapes Marchantia TCP transcription factor activity
Ezgi Süheyla Karaaslan, Nan Wang, Natalie Faiß, Yuyu Liang, Sean A. Montgomery, Sascha Laubinger, Kenneth Wayne Berendzen, Frédéric Berger, Holger Breuninger, and Chang Liu*. (2020) Nature Plants 6(10):1250-1261. doi:10.1038/s41477-020-00766-0
Plant Lamin-like Proteins Mediate Chromatin Tethering at the Nuclear Periphery
Bo Hu§, Nan Wang§, Xiuli Bi§, Ezgi Süheyla Karaaslan, Anna-Lena Weber, Kenneth Wayne Berendzen and Chang Liu*. (2019) Genome Biology 20:87. DOI: 10.1186/s13059-019-1694-3