Dr Jean-Paul Ebejer and Ms Dorita Agius form part of a team of scientists from fourteen European countries who recently published a review article titled ‘Exploring the crop epigenome: a comparison of DNA methylation profiling techniques’ which appeared in the May 2023 issue of Frontiers in Plant Science.
Epigenetic variations bring about a change in gene expression without changes in DNA sequence. These have various critical implications for adaptation and survival. One of the epigenetic markers is DNA methylation. This review paper discusses various techniques available for DNA methylation detection with the aim of assisting scientists from academia and industry in making informed decisions when designing their epigenetic research studies.
Dr Jean-Paul Ebejer is a senior lecturer at the Centre of Molecular Medicine and Biobanking. He contributed to the bioinformatics aspect of this article.
Ms Dorita Agius is a PhD candidate at the Centre of Molecular Medicine and Biobanking. In her PhD project she is investigating the genomes of two endemic plant species in the genus Limonium. As part of her research, she is also aiming to investigate the contribution of the epigenome to the phenotypic variation of these taxa. Ms Agius is also a senior lecturer at Junior College, and forms part of the core group of the European COST action EPI-CATCH (EPIgenetic mechanisms of Crop Adaptations to Climate cHange), which coordinated the writing of this manuscript.
For further information about this research kindly contact Ms Agius via email.