*corresponding
**co-first
For a complete publication list, see Pubmed
Preprints from the Lesch Lab:
Tullius TW**, Heuer RA**, Bohaczuk SC, Mallory B, Dubocanin D, Ranchalis J, Ayaz A, Mason C, Seli E, Phillippy AM, Stergachis AB*, Lesch BJ*. Protamine lacunae preserve the paternal chromatin landscape in sperm. biorXiv 2025. link
Publications from the Lesch Lab:
Yu H, Zhang Y, Liao Z, Walters BW, Lesch BJ*. H3K4me3 amplifies transcription at intergenic active regulatory elements. Genes Dev. 2025 Aug 18. link
Kataruka S**, Malla AB**, Rainsford SR, Walters BW, Heuer RA, Marshall KL, Lesch BJ*. SMARCA5 restricts chromatin accessibility to promote male meiosis and fertility in mammals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Aug 5;122(31):e2422356122. link
(book chapter) Walters BW, Yu H, Kataruka S, Lesch BJ*. Profiling histone modifications in differentiating mouse spermatogonia with CUT&Tag. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2025;2954:3-26. link
Marshall KL, Stadtmauer DJ, Maziarz J, Wagner GP, Lesch BJ*. Evolutionary innovations in germline biology of placental mammals identified by transcriptomics of first-wave spermatogenesis in opossum. Dev Cell 2024 Nov 6:S1534-5807(24). link
(review) Yu H, Lesch BJ*. Functional Roles of H3K4 Methylation in Transcriptional Regulation. Mol Cell Biol. 2024;44(11):505-515. link
Walters BW, Rainsford SR, Heuer RA, Dias N, Huang X, de Rooij D, Lesch BJ*. KDM6A/UTX promotes spermatogenic gene expression across generations and is not required for male fertility. Biol Reprod. 2024;110(2):391-407. link
Liao C, Walters BW, DiStasio M, Lesch BJ*. Human-specific epigenomic states in spermatogenesis. Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2023; 23:577-588. link
Malla AB, Yu H, Farris D, Kadimi S, Lam TT, Cox AL, Smith ZD, Lesch BJ*. DOT1L bridges transcription and heterochromatin formation at mammalian pericentromeres EMBO Rep. 2023;e56492. link
Malla AB*, Rainsford SR, Smith ZD, Lesch BJ*. DOT1L promotes spermatid differentiation by regulating expression of genes required for histone-to-protamine replacement. Development 2023, 150:9. dev201497. link
Griffin KN**, Walters BW**, Li H**, Wang H, Biancon G, Tebaldi T, Kaya CB, Kanyo J, Lam TT, Cox AL, Halene S, Chung JJ, Lesch BJ*. Widespread association of the Argonaute protein AGO2 with meiotic chromatin suggests a distinct nuclear function in mammalian male reproduction. Genome Research 2022 Sep 15;32(9):1655–68. †co-first author link
Bae S, Lesch BJ*. H3K4me1 Distribution Predicts Transcription State and Poising at Promoters. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020 May 5;8:289. link
Lesch BJ*, Tothova Z, Morgan EA, Liao Z, Bronson RT, Ebert BL, Page DC*. Intergenerational epigenetic inheritance of cancer susceptibility in mammals. Elife. 2019 Apr 9;8:e39380. link news article in The Scientist magazine
Lesch BJ, Silber SJ, McCarrey JR, Page DC. Parallel evolution of male germline epigenetic poising and somatic development in animals. Nature Genetics. 2016 Aug;48(8):888-94. link comment
Lesch BJ, Page DC. Poised chromatin in the mammalian germ line. Development. 2014 Oct;141(19):3619-26. link
Alpatov R**, Lesch BJ**, Nakamoto-Kinoshita M, et al. A chromatin-dependent role of the fragile X mental retardation protein FMRP in the DNA damage response. Cell. 2014;157(4):869-881. *co-first link
Lesch BJ, Dokshin GA, Young RA, McCarrey JR, Page DC. A set of genes critical to development is epigenetically poised in mouse germ cells from fetal stages through completion of meiosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Oct 1;110(40):16061-6. link comment 1 comment 2
Okumura LM, Lesch BJ*, Page DC*. The ligand binding domain of GCNF is not required for repression of pluripotency genes in mouse fetal ovarian germ cells. PLoS One. 2013 Jun 7;8(6):e66062. *co-corresponding link
Lesch BJ, Page DC. Genetics of germ cell development. Nat Rev Genet. 2012 Nov;13(11):781-94. link
Other publications:
Soleiman Ekhtiyari M, Yousefi M, Samadian F, Ghaderi-Zefrehei M, Neysi S, Shamsabadi JS, Javanmard A, Shahriarpour H, Lesch B. TNFRSF1A and NCF1 may act as hub genes in mastitis. Veterinary Medical Science. 2025 Mar;11(2):e70278.
Esfahani EN, Ansari Mahyari S, Davoodi P, Ghaderi-Zefrehei M, Lesch BJ. Decoding Cattle (Bos taurus) Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase (DGAT) Gene Families: A Pathway to Functional Understanding. Journal of Heredity. 2025 Feb 11.
Bigdeli A, Ghaderi-Zefrehei M, Lesch BJ, Behmanesh M, Arab SS. Bioinformatics analysis of myelin-microbe interactions suggests multiple types of molecular mimicry in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. PLoS One. 2024;19(12):e0308817.
Biancon G, Busarello E, Joshi P, Lesch BJ, Halene S, Tebaldi T. Fractionated eCLIP-seq (freCLIP-seq) to deconvolve in vivo protein-RNA contacts. STAR Protocols 2022 Dec 16;3(4):101823. link
Chandrasekaran S, Espeso-Gil S, Loh Y-HE, Javidfar B, Kassim B, Dong Y, ZhuY, Bicks LK, Li H, Rajarajan P, Peter CJ, Agullo-Pascual E, Iskhakova M, Estill M, Lesch BJ, Shen L, Jiang Y, Akbarian S. Neuron-specific chromosomal megadomain organization is adaptive to recent retrotransposon expansions. Nature Communications 2021 Dec 13;12(1):7243. link
Alqadah A, Hsieh YW, Xiong R, Lesch BJ, Chang C, Chuang CF. A universal transportin protein drives stochastic choice of olfactory neurons via specific nuclear import of a sox-2-activating factor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Dec 10;116(50):25137-25146. link