About

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

Office hours: Tuesday, 10 – 11 a.m.

I am currently not accepting new requests for letters of recommendation.

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 understanding how this information is stored and encoded in the 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, genetic, molecular and cell biology approaches to tackle these questions. Especially in light of climate change, it will be important to understand how plants react to changing environmental conditions.

Publications

Chen H, Xiong F, Wangler AM, Bischoff T, Wang K, Miao Y, Slane D, Schwab R, Laux T, and Bayer M. Phosphorylation-Dependent Activation of the bHLH Transcription Factor ICE1/SCRM Promotes Polarization of the Arabidopsis Zygote. New Phytologist. 2025 Feb;245(3):1029-1039. doi: 10.1111/nph.20265. Epub 2024 Nov 14. PMID: 39543803.
https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20265

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.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3354-0_5

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.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01200-3

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.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70324-3

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.
https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.186130

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.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0342-0_12

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.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1815866116

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.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212056

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.
https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.13659

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.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7286-9_8

Slane D and Bayer M. Cell Type-Specific Gene Expression Profiling Using Fluorescence-Activated Nuclear Sorting. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2017;1629:27-35.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7125-1_3

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.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2016.10.004

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.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161107

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.
https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erw281

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.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gdata.2015.03.015

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.
https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.116459

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.
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-042811-105507

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.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0854.2011.01222.x