About

Ph.D. in Biology, MPI for Biology / University of Tübingen (Germany)

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in how plants on a cell-to-cell level process external information that affects their development. More specifically, I want to understand how this information in the form of abiotic stresses such as heat or drought is interpreted on a genomic level at various stages of development. My research primarily focuses on trying to understand how this information is stored and encoded in context of chromatin and 3-dimensional contacts of DNA and its associated proteins inside the nucleus so that plants “learn” how to adapt to recurring stress situations. In my lab, we use next-generation sequencing, plant physiological, and biochemical approaches, as well as confocal microscopy to tackle these questions. Especially in light of climate change it will be important to understand how plants react to their changing environmental conditions.

Publications

Berendzen KW, Grefen Christopher, Sakamoto Takuya, and Slane D. Analysis of Chromatin Accessibility, Histone Modifications, and Transcriptional States in Specific Cell Types Using Flow Cytometry. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2023, 2698:57-73.

Sakamoto T, Sakamoto Y, Grob S, Slane D, Yamashita T, Ito N, Oko Y, Sugiyama T, Higaki T, Hasezawa S, Tanaka M, Matsui A, Seki M, Suzuki T, Grossniklaus U, and Matsunaga S. Two-step regulation of centromere distribution by condensin II and the nuclear envelope proteins. Nature Plants. 2022 Aug;8(8):940-953.

Slane D, Lee CH, Kolb M, Dent C, Miao Y, Franz-Wachtel M, Lau S, Maček B, Balasubramanian S, Bayer M, and Jürgens G. The integral spliceosomal component CWC15 is required for development in Arabidopsis. Scientific Reports. 2020 Aug 7;10(1):13336.

Smit ME, Llavata-Peris CI, Roosjen M, van Beijnum H, Novikova D, Levitsky V, Sevilem I, Roszak P, Slane D, Jürgens G, Mironova V, Brady SM, and Weijers D. Specification and regulation of vascular tissue identity in the Arabidopsis embryo. Development. 2020 Apr 20;147(8):dev186130.

Slane D, Berendzen KW, Witthöft J, and Jürgens G. Transcriptomic Profiling of the Arabidopsis Embryonic Epidermis Using FANS in Combination with RNAseq. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2020;2122:151-164.

Neu A, Eilbert E, Asseck LY, Slane D, Henschen A, Wang K, Bürgel P, Hildebrandt M, Musielak TJ, Kolb M, Lukowitz W, Grefen C, and Bayer M. Constitutive signaling activity of a receptor-associated protein links fertilization with embryonic patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2019 Mar 19;116(12):5795-5804.

Wallmeroth N, Jeschke D, Slane D, Nägele J, Veerabagu M, Mira-Rodado V, and Berendzen KW. ARR22 overexpression can suppress plant Two-Component Regulatory Systems. PLoS ONE. 2019 Feb 11;14(2):e0212056.

Slane D, Reichardt I, El Kasmi F, Bayer M, and Jürgens G. Evolutionarily diverse SYP1 Qa-SNAREs jointly sustain pollen tube growth in Arabidopsis. The Plant Journal. 2017 Nov;92(3):375-385.

Slane D, Bürgel P, and Bayer M. Staining and Clearing of Arabidopsis Reproductive Tissue for Imaging of Fluorescent Proteins. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2017;1669:87-94.

Slane D and Bayer M. Cell Type-Specific Gene Expression Profiling Using Fluorescence-Activated Nuclear Sorting. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2017;1629:27-35.

Bayer M, Slane D, and Jürgens G. Early plant embryogenesis-dark ages or dark matter? Current Opinion in Plant Biology. 2017 Feb;35:30-36.

Musielak TJ, Slane D, Liebig C, and Bayer M. A Versatile Optical Clearing Protocol for Deep Tissue Imaging of Fluorescent Proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS ONE. 2016 Aug 12;11(8):e0161107.

Murphy E, Vu LD, Van den Broeck L, Lin Z, Ramakrishna P, van de Cotte B, Gaudinier A, Goh T, Slane D, Beeckman T, Inzé D, Brady SM, Fukaki H, De Smet I. RALFL34 regulates formative cell divisions in Arabidopsis pericycle during lateral root initiation. Journal of Experimental Botany. 2016 Aug;67(16):4863-4875.

Slane D, Kong J, Schmid M, Jürgens G, Bayer M. Profiling of embryonic nuclear vs. cellular RNA in Arabidopsis thaliana. Genomics Data. 2015 Apr 8;4:96-98.

Slane D, Kong J, Berendzen KW, Kilian J, Henschen A, Kolb M, Schmid M, Harter K, Mayer U, De Smet I, Bayer M, Jürgens G. Cell type-specific transcriptome analysis in the early Arabidopsis thaliana embryo. Development. 2014 Dec;141(24):4831-4840.

Lau S, Slane D, Herud O, Kong J, Jürgens G. Early Embryogenesis in Flowering Plants: Setting Up the Basic Body Pattern. Annual Review of Plant Biology. 2012;63:483-506.

Reichardt I, Slane D, El Kasmi F, Knöll C, Fuchs R, Mayer U, Lipka V, Jürgens G. Mechanisms of Functional Specificity Among Plasma-Membrane Syntaxins in Arabidopsis. Traffic. 2011 Sep;12(9):1269-1280.