yoav.voichek [at] gmi.oeaw.ac.at

CV Google Scholar Google Scholar Twitter Github

About

I am a postdoc researcher in the Gregor Mendel Institute (GMI) in Vienna, working in the group of Magnus Nordborg. I am a mathematician by training but made the leap to biology, and I enjoy combining computational and bench work. I did my PhD with Naama Barkai at the Weizmann Institute of Science, studying transcription and chromatin dynamics during DNA replication. I then moved to work with Detlef Weigel at the Max Planck Institute, where I developed a GWAS method tailored to the complex genomes of plants.

I am interested in the unique characteristics of gene transcription in plants. Our perception of transcription in plants is largely an extrapolation* from non-plant systems. However, there is ample evidence of the uniqueness of the transcription process in the plant kingdom relative to other model organisms. In my work, I study basic properties of gene transcription in plants, as well as how it facilitates divergence of gene expression patterns in natural populations.

My work is funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie and VIP2 fellowships.

I will open my own research group at the Weizmann Institute of Science in the summer of 2025.

Publications

First-author publications

  1. Widespread transcriptional regulation from within transcribed regions in plants; Voichek Y#, Hristova G, Mollá-Morales A, Weigel D, Nordborg M#; 2024; Nature Genetics.
  2. Cell-cycle status of male and female gametes during Arabidopsis reproduction; Voichek Y# et al.; 2023; Plant Physiology.
  3. Identifying genetic variants underlying phenotypic variation in plants without complete genomes; Voichek Y & Weigel D; 2020; Nature Genetics.
  4. Epigenetic control of expression homeostasis during replication is stabilized by the replication checkpoint; Voichek Y*, Mittelman K*, Gordon Y, Bar-Ziv R, Lifshitz Smit D, Shenhav R, Barkai N; 2018; Molecular Cell.
  5. Expression homeostasis during DNA replication; Voichek Y*, Bar-Ziv R*, Barkai N; 2016; Science.
  6. Chromatin dynamics during DNA replication; Bar-Ziv R*, Voichek Y*, Barkai N; 2016; Genome Research.
  7. Dealing with gene-dosage imbalance during S phase; Bar-Ziv R*, Voichek Y*, Barkai N; 2016; Trends in Genetics (review article).
  8. A role for Rtt109 in buffering gene-dosage imbalance during DNA replication; Voichek Y*, Bar-Ziv R*, Barkai N; 2016; Nucleus (review article).
  9. 4sUDRB-seq: measuring genomewide transcriptional elongation rates and initiation frequencies within cells; Fuchs G*, Voichek Y*, Benjamin S, Gilad S, Amit I, Oren M; 2014; Genome Biology.
  10. Coordination of gene expression and growth-rate in natural populations of budding yeast; Tamari Z*, Rosin D*, Voichek Y*, Barkai N; 2014; PLoS One.
  11. Expression noise and acetylation profiles distinguish HDAC functions; Weinberger L*, Voichek Y*, Tirosh I, Hornung G, Amit I, Barkai N; 2012; Molecular Cell.

* Equal contribution / # corresponding author

Co-author publications

  1. k-mer-based GWAS in a wheat collection reveals novel and diverse sources of powdery mildew resistance; Jaegle B, Voichek Y, Haupt M, Sotiropoulos AG, Gauthier K, Heuberger M, Jung E, Herren G, Widrig V, Leber R, Li Y, Schierscher B, Serex S, Boczkowska M, Jasińska MP, Bolc P, Chalhoub B, Stein N, Keller B, Sanchez-Martin J; 2024; BioRxiv.
  2. Metabolic enzymes moonlight as selective autophagy receptors to protect plants against viral-induced cellular damage; Clavel M, Bianchi A, Kobylinska R, Groh R, Ma J, Papareddy RK, Grujic N, Picchianti L, Stewart E, Schutzbier M, Stejskal K, De la Concepcion JC, Sanchez de Medina Hernandez V, Voichek Y, Clauw P, Gunis J, Durnberger G, Muelders JC, Grimm A, Sedivy A, Erhardt M, Vyboishchikov V, Gao P, Lechner E, Vantard E, Jez J, Roitinger E, Genschik P, Kang BH, Dagdas Y; 2024; BioRxiv.
  3. Standing genetic variation fuels rapid evolution of herbicide resistance in blackgrass; Kersten S, Chang J, Huber CD, Voichek Y, Lanz C, Hagmaier T, Lang P, Lutz U, Hirschberg I, Lerchl J, Porri A, Van de Peer Y, Schmid K, Weigel D, Rabanal FA; 2023; PNAS.
  4. Evolution of intron splicing towards optimized gene expression is based on various Cis- and Trans-molecular mechanisms; Frumkin I, Yofe I, Bar-Ziv R, Gurvich Y, Lu YY, Voichek Y, Towers R, Schirman D, Krebber H, Pilpel Y; 2019; PLoS Biology.
  5. Combining deep-sequencing, proteomics, phosphoproteomics and functional screens to discover novel regulators of sphingolipid homeostasis; Lebesgue N, Megyeri M, Cristobal A, Scholten A, Chuartzman S, Voichek Y, Scheltema R, Mohammed S, Futerman A, Schuldiner M, Heck A, Lemeer S; 2016; Journal of Proteome Research.
  6. Simultaneous measurement of genome-wide transcription elongation speeds and rates of RNA polymerase II transition into active elongation with 4sUDRB-seq; Fuchs G, Voichek Y, Rabani M, Benjamin S, Gilad S, Amit I, Oren M; 2015; Nature Protocols.
  7. Cotranscriptional histone H2B monoubiquitylation is tightly coupled with RNA polymerase II elongation rate; Fuchs G, Hollander D, Voichek Y, Ast G, Oren M; 2014; Genome Research.
  8. Divergence and selectivity of expression-coupled histone modifications in budding yeasts; Mosesson Y, Voichek Y, Barkai N; 2014; PLoS One.