Todd S. Macfarlan

The paper functionally characterizes human PRDM9 alleles to show that despite sequence diversity, most alleles function similarly, while rare variants show extreme DNA binding effects.

The paper identifies pachytene piRNAs as precise gene regulators during meiosis, showing they target specific mRNAs through near-perfect complementarity.

The paper analyzes young KRAB-zinc finger gene clusters in mice, showing ERVs drive genetic heterogeneity through recombination and duplication mechanisms.

The paper identifies MNX1-bound loci in motor neurons and shows MNX1 restrains pan-neuronal gene expression.

The paper identifies a meiosis-specific pericentromere specification in Peromyscus mouse oocytes that separates sister-chromatid cohesion from the kinetochore.

The paper shows AGO2 localizes to the nucleus in quiescent cells to silence mobile transposons via RNA interference.

ZFP661 blocks cohesin trapping by CTCF and increases protocadherin diversity for proper cortical dendritic arborization.

This study shows that MLL3/MLL4 methyltransferase activities are essential for early embryonic development and stem cell differentiation, but their role is lineage-selective and not dependent on enhancer activation.

This study shows LSD1/KDM1A suppresses primed enhancers in mESC by maintaining H3K4me1 levels and preventing aberrant enhancer activity.

This study identifies ZCWPW1 as a dual histone methylation reader essential for meiotic DSB repair in vertebrates, showing its co-expression and co-evolution with PRDM9.

The paper shows that deleting large KRAB-ZFP gene clusters in mice leads to retrotransposon activation, indicating most KRAB-ZFPs are non-essential for transposon suppression.