Lectures and seminars Guest seminar - Professor Hitoshi Kurumizaka, University of Tokyo
Title: Visual biochemical studies of chromatin dynamics in genome function.
Time and location: 3pm in D1012 Biomedicum floor 10, 23rd of October
Host: Camilla Björkegren
Professor Hitoshi Kurumizaka, Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, University of Tokyo is visiting us and will give a seminar.
Abstract:
In eukaryotes, the genetic information encoded in DNA is packaged as chromatin, in which the nucleosome is an elemental repeating unit. In the nucleosome, histones, H2A, H2B, H3, and H4, form a histone octamer, containing two sets of H2A-H2B dimers and H3-H4 dimers, wrapped around by a 145-147 base-pair DNA segment. The nucleosomes are connected by linker DNAs, and form a “beads-on-a-string” architecture in chromatin. The nucleosome is inhibitory for DNA functions, such as transcription, recombination, repair, and replication, and functions to maintain integrity of the genomic DNA by avoiding inappropriate expression of DNA functions. At the same time, nucleosomes play important roles as epigenetic regulators for genomic DNA functions. To study how nucleosomes function as the genome regulator, we have established a method to visualize the intermediate structures of macromolecular complexes during genomic DNA functions in vitro. I will introduce our “Visual Biochemistry” approach, and discuss our current results regarding the mechanisms by which the nucleosome functions as a genome regulator.