E. Han Tan

Education

  • Washington University in St Louis, 2011, PhD
  • Duke University, 2005, BS

Research Interests

We are a diverse and dynamic team of researchers working on questions centered around chromosome instability and change using genome elimination as the primary tool for our studies. Genome elimination is a biological phenomenon that can occur in plants and animals during sexual reproduction. An embryo undergoing genome elimination loses an entire parental chromosome set in early development, resulting in haploid offspring that carry only half the expected number of chromosomes. The underlying genomic instability that occurs during genome elimination and the enduring effects this has on the genome is still an active area of investigation and has potential implications in our understanding of cancer genetics.

An unexpected outcome from genome elimination crosses results in is the creation of highly rearranged chromosomes that have undergone chromothripsis, or chromosome shattering. Because chromothripsis was first described in cancer and has been implicated in the progression of cancer, the occurence of chromothripsis during genome elimination provides a unique opportunity to gain more insight into this phenomenon. Genome elimination shares conserved events which are thought to lead to chromothripsis, such as the missegregation of chromosomes during anaphase, the formation of micronuclei formation as well as the accumulation of DNA damage. We are also interested in the evolutionary consequences of chromosomes that have undergone chromothripsis because we have shown that these chromosomes can be transmitted to the next generation.

In the lab, we are currently working to elucidate the mechanistic basis and evolutionary consequences of chromosome instability and change that arise during genome elimination and address these pressing questions on genome instability. We use use various genomic tools ranging from short-read sequencing to long-read sequencing methods, targeted genetic approaches using CRISRPR-Cas9, as well as traditional cytogenetics and genetics analyses.

Selected Publication

  • Marimuthu MPA, Maruthachalam R, Bondada R, Kuppu S, Tan EH, Britt A, Chan SWL, Comai L. (2021). Epigenetically mismatched parental centromeres trigger genome elimination in hybrids. Sci Adv. 7(47):eabk1151. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abk1151.
  • Ge T, Jiang H, Tan EH, Johnson SB, Larkin RP, Charkowski AO, Secor G, Hao J. Pangenomic Analysis of Dickeya dianthicola Strains Related to the Outbreak of Blackleg and Soft Rot of Potato in the United States. Plant Dis. 2021 Nov 30:PDIS03210587RE. doi: 10.1094/PDIS-03-21-0587-RE.
  • Amundson KR, Ordoñez B, Santayana M, Nganga ML, Henry IM, Bonierbale M, Khan A, Tan EH, Comai L. Rare instances of haploid inducer DNA in potato dihaploids and ploidy-dependent genome instability. Plant Cell. 2021 Aug 13;33(7):2149-2163. doi: 10.1093/plcell/koab100.
  • Amundson KR, Ordoñez B, Santayana M, Tan EH, Henry IM, Mihovilovich E, Bonierbale M, Comai L. (2020). Genomic Outcomes of Haploid Induction Crosses in Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). Genetics. 214(2):369-380. doi: 10.1534/genetics.119.302843.
  • Detection of Chromothripsis in Plants. Henry I.M., Comai L., Tan E.H. (2018) In: Pellestor F. (eds) Chromothripsis. Methods in Molecular Biology, Vol 1769, pp 119-132 doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7780-2_8
  • Mutation of Arabidopsis SMC4 identifies condensin as a corepressor of pericentromeric transposons and conditionally expressed genes. Wang, J., Blevins, T., Podicheti R., Haag, J.R., Tan, E.H., Wang, F., Pikaard, C.S. (2017) Mutation of Arabidopsis SMC4 identifies condensin as a corepressor of pericentromeric transposons and conditionally expressed genes. Genes and Development, 31:1-16 doi: 10.1101/gad.301499.117
  • Chromosome Dosage Analysis in Plants Using Whole Genome Sequencing. Tan, E.H., Comai, L., Henry, I.M. (2016) Chromosome Dosage Analysis in Plants Using Whole Genome Sequencing. Bio-protocol, doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.1854.
  • Catastrophic chromosomal restructuring during genome elimination in plants. Tan, E.H., Henry, I.M., Bradnam, K., Mandakova, T., Marimuthu, M., Ravi, M., Korf, I., Lysak, M., Comai, L., Chan, S.W.L. (2015) Catastrophic chromosomal restructuring during genome elimination in plants. eLife, doi: 10.7554/eLife.06516.
  • Point mutation in the centromeric histone induce post zygotic incompatibility and uniparental inheritance. Kuppu, S., Tan, E.H., Nguyen, H., Comai, L., Chan, S.W.L., Britt, A.B. (2015) Point mutation in the centromeric histone induce post zygotic incompatibility and uniparental inheritance. PLOS Genetics, doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005494.
  • Naturally occurring differences in CENH3 affect chromosome segregation in zygotic mitosis of hybrids. Maheshwari, S., Tan, E.H., Comai, L., Chan, S.W.L. (2015). Naturally occurring differences in CENH3 affect chromosome segregation in zygotic mitosis of hybrids. PLOS Genetics, doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004970.
  • A haploid genetics toolbox for Arabidopsis thaliana. Ravi, M.*, Marimuthu, M.*, Tan, E.H.*, Maheshwari, M.*, Henry, I.M., Marin-Rodriguez, B., Urtecho, G., Tan, J., Thornhill, K., Zhu, F., Panoli, A., Sundaresan, V., Britt, A.B., Comai, L., Chan, S.W.L. (2014 – *Equal contribution) A haploid genetics toolbox for Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature Communications 5:5334, doi: 10.1038/ncomms6334.