@article {69227, title = {A series of spontaneously blinking dyes for super-resolution microscopy}, journal = {Nat Methods}, year = {2026}, month = {2024 Apr 16}, abstract = {

Spontaneously blinking fluorophores toggle between nonfluorescent and fluorescent forms without caging groups or redox buffers, enabling super-resolution imaging. The intrinsic blinking of such dyes is governed by molecular structure and modulated by environment; there is no one-size-fits-all fluorophore suitable for every imaging context. We report dyes with tuned on:off ratios that enable single-molecule localization microscopy and super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging of biomolecular structures in vitro and in cells.

}, doi = {10.1038/s41592-026-03062-5}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-026-03062-5}, author = {Katie L. Holland and Sarah E. Plutkis and Timothy A. Daugird and Abhishek Sau and Jonathan B. Grimm and Brian P. English and Qinsi Zheng and Sandeep Dave and Fariha Rahman and Liangqi Xie and Peng Dong and Ariana N. Tkachuk and Timothy A. Brown and Robert H. Singer and Zhe Liu and Catherine G. Galbraith and Siegfried M. Musser and Wesley R. Legant and Luke D. Lavis} } @article {69255, title = {Assessing the impact of Brd2 depletion on chromatin compartmentalization}, journal = {bioRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Mar 6}, abstract = {

Recent insights into genome organization have emphasized the importance of A/B chromatin compartments. While our previous research showed that Brd2 depletion weakens compartment boundaries and promotes A/B mixing 1, Hinojosa-Gonzalez et al.2 were unable to replicate the findings. In response, we revisited our Micro-C data and successfully replicated the original results using the default parameters in the cooltools software package. We show that, after correcting inconsistencies with the selection and phasing of the compartment profiles, the decrease in B compartment strength persists but the change in compartment identity is to a much lesser extent than originally reported. To further assess the regulatory role of Brd2, we used saddle plots to determine the strength of compartmentalization and observed a consistent decrease of compartment strength especially at B compartments upon Brd2 depletion. This study highlights the importance of selecting appropriate parameters and analytical tools for compartment analysis and carefully interpreting the results.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.03.02.583085}, url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2024/03/06/2024.03.02.583085}, author = {Advait Athreya and Liangqi Xie and Robert Tjian and Bin Zhang and Zhe J. Liu} } @article {68468, title = {Spatial organization of the 3D genome encodes gene co-expression programs in single cells}, journal = {bioRxiv}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Oct 27}, abstract = {

Deconstructing the mechanism by which the 3D genome encodes genetic information to generate diverse cell types during animal development is a major challenge in biology. The contrast between the elimination of chromatin loops and domains upon Cohesin loss and the lack of downstream gene expression changes at the cell population level instigates intense debates regarding the structure-function relationship between genome organization and gene regulation. Here, by analyzing single cells after acute Cohesin removal with sequencing and spatial genome imaging techniques, we discover that, instead of dictating population-wide gene expression levels, 3D genome topology mediated by Cohesin safeguards long-range gene co-expression correlations in single cells. Notably, Cohesin loss induces gene co-activation and chromatin co-opening between active domains in\ cis\ up to tens of megabase apart, far beyond the typical length scale of enhancer-promoter communication. In addition, Cohesin separates Mediator protein hubs, prevents active genes in\ cis\ from localizing into shared hubs and blocks intersegment transfer of diverse transcriptional regulators. Together, these results support that spatial organization of the 3D genome orchestrates dynamic long-range gene and chromatin co-regulation in single living cells.

}, doi = {10.1101/2022.10.26.513917}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.26.513917}, author = {Peng Dong and Shu Zhang and Liangqi Xie and Lihua Wang and Andrew L. Lemire and Arthur D. Lander and Howard Y. Chang and Zhe J. Liu} }