Epigenetics & DNA methylation
Mapping cytosine methylation and its regulatory roles — from Dnmt1-driven gene silencing in pituitary tumours to non-CG methylation marking the pupa-to-adult transition in the moth Helicoverpa armigera.
Research
We study how gene regulation is encoded in DNA methylation and chromatin, and we build the genomic resources and methods needed to ask those questions in species without well-developed reference genomes — from insects and crustaceans to plants and extremophile microbes.
Mapping cytosine methylation and its regulatory roles — from Dnmt1-driven gene silencing in pituitary tumours to non-CG methylation marking the pupa-to-adult transition in the moth Helicoverpa armigera.
Developing chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and profiling workflows for non-model organisms, including the first ChIP method for tephritid fruit flies and the histone modifications it revealed.
Building de novo genome and transcriptome resources across diverse species — crustaceans, sea anemones and plants — to enable functional and evolutionary discovery where reference genomes are sparse.
Discovering and characterising thermostable enzymes from Great Artesian Basin microbes, including esterases that degrade plastics — translating extreme-environment biology into biotechnology.
A few representative papers led from the lab.
Non-CG methylation marks the pupa-to-adult transition in the moth Helicoverpa armigera, pointing to a developmental role for methylation outside the canonical CG context. Royle & Dudley, 2024 →
A moderately thermostable esterase from a Great Artesian Basin Bacillus velezensis degrades diisobutyl phthalate — an enzyme prospected from an extreme environment for plastic breakdown. Mu et al., 2024 →
A chromatin immunoprecipitation method adapted for tephritid fruit flies, providing evidence of histone modifications in an agriculturally important pest group. Nagalingam et al., 2018 →