Recently, the research teamled byProfessor Xu Qiutao fromthe GXUSchool of Agriculturehas made new progresses in thestudyof novel histone modificationsin plants.Their groundbreaking research has producedthe first genome-wide map of a novel acylation modification ataspecific histone site in rice—2-hydroxyisobutyrylation (H4K8hib). This study reveals thatH4K8hibactsas an active chromatin mark in rice, which enhances immune responses by promoting gene expression.

The findings, titled “Histone H4K8hib modification promotes gene expression and regulates rice immunity”,werepublished in the internationallyprestigiousjournalMolecular Plant.Guangxi University is the first completion unitof this paper. Professor Xu Qiutao from Guangxi University, as well as Ma Xuan, a PhDstudent from the School of AgricultureatNingxia University aretheco-first authors. Additionally,Professor Chen Xiaoyang from the School of Plant ProtectionatAnhui Agriculture University and Xu Qiutao are the co-corresponding authors.

It is reported that professor Xu Qiutao and his team haverecentlyfocused on thecutting-edgeresearch onfunctional mechanisms of epigenetic regulation toexplorethe interplay between energy metabolism and epigenetic modificationsin plant biology.Their research has yielded aseries of significant original findings,published in prestigiousdomestic and internationaljournals, includingNature Communications,Cell Reports,Molecular Plant,Nucleic Acids Research,Genome Biology,Plant Biotechnology Journal,Plant Physiology, andPlant Communications.