Zheng Li

This study identifies MORC and MOM1 as spatial regulators of RNA Polymerase V chromatin positioning, which influences DNA methylation landscapes in plants.

The paper shows that multiple redundant mechanisms account for most gene silencing downstream of DNA methylation, with loss of these pathways causing widespread derepression and genomic changes.

This paper engineers a plant virus to deliver a compact CRISPR-Cas system for transgene-free germline editing in Arabidopsis.

The paper traces the evolutionary origin of eukaryotic RNA-guided endonucleases, showing they evolved from a specific clade of bacterial IS607 TnpB enzymes.