Guohong Li (Ph. D)
Professor, Department of Genetics
Dean, College of Life Sciences
Laboratory of Chromatin Structure and Epigenetic Regulation
Taikang Center for Life and Medical Sciences
Frontier Science Center for Immunology and Metabolism
Wuhan University
Wuhan 430072, China
Tel: 027-68789374
E-mail: liguohong@whu.edu.cn
Research Interests:
Our group focuses on the epigenetic regulation of chromatin higher-order structures, and their biological functions in cell fate determination during programming and reprogramming of embryonic stem (ES) cells. Our research mainly includes four main areas as follows:
1) Structural and functional studies of the 30-nm chromatin fibers.
2) Molecular mechanisms of chromatin structure and cell fate determination.
3) Dysregulation of chromatin structure and its role in human diseases.
4) Centromeric chromatin and artificial chromosome construction.
We have achieved a series of research achievements in these areas. Our analysis of the cryo-EM structure of 30-nm chromatin fiber revealed a novel left-handed double helix structure, which has been featured in renowned international textbooks, such as Textbook of Structural Biology, Molecular Biology of the Cell and Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. This work demonstrates that "tetranucleosomes" are crucial intermediate structure of chromatin fibers and play essential roles in gene transcription, epigenetic inheritance and human diseases. Additionally, we have uncovered the molecular mechanism of histone variant recognition and nucleosome assembly. Furthermore, we discovered a new epigenetic mechanism for regulating the initiation of DNA replication, an achievement that was selected as one of the top ten scientific advances in China in 2020.
Representative Publications (*corresponding author)
1. Haizhen Long#, Liwei Zhang#, Mengjie Lv#, Zengqi Wen#, Wenhao Zhang, Xiulan Chen, Peitao Zhang, Tongqing Li, Luyuan Chang, Caiwei Jin, Guozhao Wu, Xi Wang, Fuquan Yang, Jianfeng Pei, Ping Chen, Raphael Margueron, Haiteng Deng, Mingzhao Zhu* and Guohong Li*. H2A.Z Facilitates Licensing and Activation of Early Replication Origins. Nature. 2020.577(7791), 576-581.
2. Feng Song#, Ping Chen#, Dapeng Sun, Mingzhu Wang, Dan Liang, Ruiming Xu, Ping Zhu*and Guohong Li*. Cryo-EM Study of the Chromatin Fiber Reveals a Double Helix Twisted byTetranucleosomal Units. Science. 2014.344(6182), 376-380.
3. Jicheng Zhao#, Min Wang#, Luyuan Chang, Juan Yu, Aoqun Song, Cuifang Liu, Wenjun Huang, Tiantian Zhang, Xudong Wu, Xiaohua Shen, Bing Zhu and Guohong Li*. RYBP/YAF2-PRC1 complexes and histone H1-dependent chromatin compaction mediate propagation of H2AK119ub1 during cell division. Nature Cell Biology. 2020.22(4): 439-452.
4. Liang Wang#, Mingli Hu#, Mei-Qing Zuo, Jicheng Zhao, Di Wu, Li Huang, Yongxin Wen, Yunfan Li, Ping Chen, Xinhua Bao, Meng-Qiu Dong, Guohong Li*, and Pilong Li*. Rett Syndrome-Causing Mutations Compromise MeCP2-mediated Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation of Chromatin. Cell Research.2020.30. 393–407.
5. Cuifang Liu#, Juan Yu#, Aoqun Song#, Min Wang , Jiansen Hu , Ping Chen, Jicheng Zhao* & Guohong Li*. Histone H1 facilitates restoration of H3K27me3 during DNA replication by chromatin compaction. Nature Communication. 2023. 14(1):4081.
6. Jicheng Zhao#, Jie Lan#, Min Wang#, Cuifang Liu#, Zheng Fang, Aoqun Song, Tiantian Zhang, Liang Wang, Bing Zhu, Ping Chen*, Juan Yu* and Guohong Li*. H2AK119ub1 differentially fine-tunes gene expression by modulating canonical PRC1- and H1-dependent chromatin compaction. Molecular Cell.2024.84, 1–15.
7. Ping Chen#, Liping Dong#, Mingli Hu, Yi-Zhou Wang, Xue Xiao, Zhongliang Zhao, Jie Yan, Peng-Ye Wang, Danny Reinberg, Ming Li*, Wei Li* and Guohong Li*. Functions of FACT in Breaking the Nucleosome and Maintaining Its Integrity at the Single-Nucleosome Level. Molecular Cell. 2018.71(2), 284-293.
8. Junnan Fang, Yun Wei, Yuting Liu, Wenqiang Deng, Zhouliang Yu, Li Huang,Yan Teng,Ting Yao, Qinglong You, Haihe Ruan, Ping Chen, Rui-Ming Xu, and Guohong Li*. Structural Transitions of Centromeric Chromatin Coordinate the Cell Cycle-dependent Recruitment of CENP-N. Genes and Development.2015.29, 1058–1073.
9. Zhouliang Yu#, Xiang Zhou#, Wenjing Wang, Wenqiang Deng, Junnan Fang, Hao Hu, Zichen Wang, Shangze Li, Lei Cui, Jing Shen, Linhui Zhai, Shengyi Peng, Jiemin Wong, Shuo Dong, Zengqiang Yuan, Guangshuo Ou, Xiaodong Zhang, Ping Xu, Jizhong Lou, Na Yang, Ping Chen, Rui-Ming Xu, and Guohong Li*. Dynamic phosphorylation of CENP-A at Ser68 orchestrates its cell cycle-dependent deposition at centromeres. Developmental Cell.2015. 32(1), 68-81.
10. Ping Chen#, Jicheng Zhao#, Yan Wang#, Haizhen Long, Dan Liang, Haiyong Zhao, Zengqi Wen, Wei Li, Xia Li, Li Huang, Hongli Feng,Ping Zhu, Ming Li, Qainfei Wang, and Guohong Li*. H3.3 functionally counteracts with H2A.Z to activate gene transcription. Genes and Development. 2013.27(19):2109-2124.
