Abstract

The Hox genes encode a conserved family of homeodomain-containing transcriptional regulators that are critical for many aspects of animal development, in all metazoans. The long-term goal of this project is to understand how these proteins function as transcriptional regulators at a mechanistic level. Three approaches will be used: 1) a structure-function analysis of three Hox proteins, using an in vivo, rescue-based strategy, focusing especially on Hox protein motifs that interact with Hox cofactors in a context-dependent manner, 2) the high-resolution characterization of individual Hox- targeted regulatory elements, and 3) an analysis of the Hox-dependent chromatin architectures in the imaginal discs, the precursors of the adult fly. Together, these studies will provide important insights int how these and other transcriptional regulators carry out their specific functions during animal development.

Public Health Relevance

This project will investigate the mechanism by which the Hox family of transcriptional regulators controls their downstream target genes in Drosophila. Emphasis is placed on using rescuing transgenes to carry out a structure-function analysis of conserved protein motifs as well as on mechanistic studies of individual, Hox-regulated elements. An analysis of Hox-dependent tissue-specific chromatin structures will also be executed.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01GM054510-22
Application #
8637078
Study Section
Development - 2 Study Section (DEV2)
Program Officer
Hoodbhoy, Tanya
Project Start
1992-08-01
Project End
2016-03-31
Budget Start
2014-04-01
Budget End
2015-03-31
Support Year
22
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$359,666
Indirect Cost
$132,701

  Institution

Name
Columbia University
Department
Biochemistry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
621889815
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10032

  Publications

Zeiske, Tim; Baburajendran, Nithya; Kaczynska, Anna et al. (2018) Intrinsic DNA Shape Accounts for Affinity Differences between Hox-Cofactor Binding Sites. Cell Rep 24:2221-2230
Kribelbauer, Judith F; Laptenko, Oleg; Chen, Siying et al. (2017) Quantitative Analysis of the DNA Methylation Sensitivity of Transcription Factor Complexes. Cell Rep 19:2383-2395
Merabet, Samir; Mann, Richard S (2016) To Be Specific or Not: The Critical Relationship Between Hox And TALE Proteins. Trends Genet 32:334-347
O'Connell, Nichole E; Lelli, Katherine; Mann, Richard S et al. (2015) Asparagine deamidation reduces DNA-binding affinity of the Drosophila melanogaster Scr homeodomain. FEBS Lett 589:3237-41
Abe, Namiko; Dror, Iris; Yang, Lin et al. (2015) Deconvolving the recognition of DNA shape from sequence. Cell 161:307-18
Crocker, Justin; Abe, Namiko; Rinaldi, Lucrezia et al. (2015) Low affinity binding site clusters confer hox specificity and regulatory robustness. Cell 160:191-203
Zhou, Tianyin; Shen, Ning; Yang, Lin et al. (2015) Quantitative modeling of transcription factor binding specificities using DNA shape. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112:4654-9
Riley, Todd R; Slattery, Matthew; Abe, Namiko et al. (2014) SELEX-seq: a method for characterizing the complete repertoire of binding site preferences for transcription factor complexes. Methods Mol Biol 1196:255-78
Agelopoulos, Marios; McKay, Daniel J; Mann, Richard S (2014) cgChIP: a cell type- and gene-specific method for chromatin analysis. Methods Mol Biol 1196:291-306
Shazman, Shula; Lee, Hunjoong; Socol, Yakov et al. (2014) OnTheFly: a database of Drosophila melanogaster transcription factors and their binding sites. Nucleic Acids Res 42:D167-71

Showing the most recent 10 out of 32 publications