Citation | Robert Martienssen has made major fundamental discoveries on the epigenetic mechanisms that regulate transposon silencing, gene control and stem cell function in plants. He has also made important contributions toward understanding development and pattern formation of plant tissues. Using Arabidopsis, maize and fission yeast, he has shown that small interfering RNA and chromatin remodelling regulate establishment and maintenance of heterochromatin at transposons and related repeated DNA sequences. In animals and plants, similar mechanisms may contribute to imprinting, X inactivation and stem cell maintenance. Finally, he was a major contributor to sequencing the genome of Arabidopsis, the first plant genome sequence completed. |