A diagram from the Shanxi University's research paper is chosen as the cover image of Nucleic Acids Research on June 4. [Photo/sxu.edu.cn]

Researchers from the School of Life Science and the Institute of Biotechnology at Shanxi University (SXU) recently published their findings on Nucleic Acids Research, a top journal in biochemistry and molecular biology.

The research paper, entitled A Polycomb repressive complex is required for RNAi-mediated heterochromatin formation and dynamic distribution of nuclear bodies, was jointly written by co-first authors Xu Jing, associate professor at the School of Life Science at SXU, and doctor Xiaolu Zhao from the University of Michigan, corresponding authors – professor Wang Wei of the Institute of Biotechnology at SXU, professor Gao Shan from the Ocean University of China, and professor Yifan Liu from the University of Michigan. 

It reveals the coupling mechanism between RNAi and transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes, and provides a new perspective on and in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanism of the formation and maintenance of heterochromatin in eukaryotes. 

The paper was selected as a Breakthrough Article by the editorial board and reviewers of Nucleic Acids Research. Only one to three percent of the journal's total publications are selected as Breakthrough Articles, which represent the most influential and innovative research results published by the journal. 

The reviewers spoke highly of the paper: "the results in this manuscript are novel and important," "many of the molecular pathways studied herein are fundamentally important…and possibly conserved across species, thus appealing to a broad field of molecular biology and medicine".