Join us for a talk on "Unraveling the molecular basis of chromosome organization" with Dr. Monica Guo, Postdoctoral Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The seminar will take place on Friday, November 20, 11:00 a.m.

Chromosomes are highly condensed by DNA supercoiling, or the winding of the DNA strand about itself. Supercoiling impacts DNA replication, transcription, protein binding to DNA, and the three-dimensional organization of chromosomes. We describe the discovery of GapR, a bacterial structuring protein that regulates DNA supercoiling, and develop a method using GapR binding to understand the distribution of DNA supercoiling in cells. Applying this method to Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we find that positive supercoiling is widespread, associated with transcription, and enriched between convergently-oriented genes. Our results suggest that GapR-seq is a powerful approach that can be applied in any organism to investigate aspects of chromosome structure and organization not accessible by existing methods.

To attend this event, please email bsi@fiu.edu for the Zoom link.