Transcriptional regulation in yeast
Our research focuses on the
transcriptional regulation of genes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Specifically. we are investigating how different regulatory proteins interact to
control gene expression and how these interactions influence the regulatory
activity of these proteins. Many of the factors that we are studying in yeast
are closely related in structure and function to regulatory proteins in higher
eukaryotes that play critical roles in processes such as development and cancer. Investigations into the activity and role of these transcription factors
in yeast therefore provides valuable information on the function of the
homologous proteins in multi-cellular organisms.
We have chosen three
different regulatory systems to study the mechanisms that control gene
expression: 1) examining the protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions of the
Mat2 protein. a member
of the highly conserved homeodomain family of DNA- binding proteins. which
functions as a cell-type specific repressor involved in mating-type regulation. 2) examining the molecular interactions of the Mcm1 protein. a MADS-Box protein
that is involved in the transcriptional regulation of cell-type and metabolic
pathways and has an essential role in the regulation of genes expressed at
specific stages of the cell cycle. and 3) investigating the mechanism of
temporal regulation of genes expressed at the middle stages of meiosis. including the analysis of proteins involved in histone modification and the
characterization of novel DNA-binding proteins with human homologs that are
associated with cancer. Our
laboratory utilizes a combination of biochemical. genetic. structural and
bioinformatics techniques. including microarray gene expression analysis and
screens of the yeast genome deletion library. to investigate the mechanism of
transcriptional regulation in yeast.
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