{"article_type":"original","has_accepted_license":"1","month":"02","project":[{"grant_number":"101034413","call_identifier":"H2020","name":"IST-BRIDGE: International postdoctoral program","_id":"fc2ed2f7-9c52-11eb-aca3-c01059dda49c"}],"abstract":[{"text":"DNA methylation is a primary layer of epigenetic modification that plays a pivotal role in the regulation of development, aging, and cancer. The concurrent activity of opposing enzymes that mediate DNA methylation and demethylation gives rise to a biochemical cycle and active turnover of DNA methylation. While the ensuing biochemical oscillations have been implicated in the regulation of cell differentiation, their functional role and spatiotemporal dynamics are unknown. In this work, we demonstrate that chromatin-mediated coupling between these local biochemical cycles can lead to the emergence of phase-locked domains, regions of locally synchronized turnover activity, whose coarsening is arrested by genomic heterogeneity. We introduce a minimal model based on stochastic oscillators with constrained long-range and nonreciprocal interactions, shaped by the local chromatin organization. Through a combination of analytical theory and stochastic simulations, we predict both the degree of synchronization and the typical size of emergent phase-locked domains. We qualitatively test these predictions using single-cell sequencing data. Our results show that DNA methylation turnover exhibits surprisingly rich spatiotemporal patterns that may be used by cells to control cell differentiation.","lang":"eng"}],"quality_controlled":"1","status":"public","OA_type":"gold","acknowledgement":"This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 950349 and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 101034413. The computations in this paper were run in part on the the FASRC Cannon cluster supported by the FAS Division of Science Research Computing Group at Harvard University and the cluster of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems.","citation":{"short":"F. Olmeda, M. Gupta, O. Bektas, S. Rulands, PRX Life 4 (2026).","ieee":"F. Olmeda, M. Gupta, O. Bektas, and S. Rulands, “Spatiotemporal patterns of active epigenetic turnover,” <i>PRX Life</i>, vol. 4. American Physical Society, 2026.","apa":"Olmeda, F., Gupta, M., Bektas, O., &#38; Rulands, S. (2026). Spatiotemporal patterns of active epigenetic turnover. <i>PRX Life</i>. American Physical Society. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1103/89bj-79g5\">https://doi.org/10.1103/89bj-79g5</a>","ama":"Olmeda F, Gupta M, Bektas O, Rulands S. Spatiotemporal patterns of active epigenetic turnover. <i>PRX Life</i>. 2026;4. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1103/89bj-79g5\">10.1103/89bj-79g5</a>","mla":"Olmeda, Fabrizio, et al. “Spatiotemporal Patterns of Active Epigenetic Turnover.” <i>PRX Life</i>, vol. 4, 013018, American Physical Society, 2026, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1103/89bj-79g5\">10.1103/89bj-79g5</a>.","ista":"Olmeda F, Gupta M, Bektas O, Rulands S. 2026. Spatiotemporal patterns of active epigenetic turnover. PRX Life. 4, 013018.","chicago":"Olmeda, Fabrizio, Misha Gupta, Onurcan Bektas, and Steffen Rulands. “Spatiotemporal Patterns of Active Epigenetic Turnover.” <i>PRX Life</i>. American Physical Society, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1103/89bj-79g5\">https://doi.org/10.1103/89bj-79g5</a>."},"date_updated":"2026-02-24T06:54:32Z","article_number":"013018","ec_funded":1,"file_date_updated":"2026-02-24T06:53:05Z","publication":"PRX Life","_id":"21275","department":[{"_id":"EdHa"}],"date_created":"2026-02-17T08:17:53Z","ddc":["570"],"oa":1,"volume":4,"date_published":"2026-02-09T00:00:00Z","day":"09","DOAJ_listed":"1","oa_version":"Published Version","article_processing_charge":"Yes","title":"Spatiotemporal patterns of active epigenetic turnover","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2835-8279"]},"PlanS_conform":"1","tmp":{"short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","image":"/images/cc_by.png"},"file":[{"file_id":"21351","date_updated":"2026-02-24T06:53:05Z","success":1,"date_created":"2026-02-24T06:53:05Z","checksum":"df9776422862d1d02c66d98e2d620849","file_name":"2026_PRXLife_Olmeda.pdf","relation":"main_file","creator":"dernst","content_type":"application/pdf","file_size":5857833,"access_level":"open_access"}],"author":[{"last_name":"Olmeda","id":"69dbf5fb-8a76-11ed-866b-fb486d8b5689","first_name":"Fabrizio","full_name":"Olmeda, Fabrizio"},{"first_name":"Misha","full_name":"Gupta, Misha","last_name":"Gupta"},{"full_name":"Bektas, Onurcan","first_name":"Onurcan","last_name":"Bektas"},{"full_name":"Rulands, Steffen","first_name":"Steffen","last_name":"Rulands"}],"type":"journal_article","publication_status":"published","OA_place":"publisher","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"publisher":"American Physical Society","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","corr_author":"1","doi":"10.1103/89bj-79g5","year":"2026","intvolume":"         4"}