Michael Poirier, professor and chair of physics at the Ohio State University will be joining us on campus to discuss transcription factors and how they can be used to access sites wrapped into nucleosomes.
The physical organization of all eukaryotic genomes is evolutionarily conserved and functions to regulate gene expression. The molecular basis of this organization involves histone protein octamers repeatedly wrapping genomic DNA into nucleosomes forming long chromatin fibers. This organization controls accessibility of transcription factors (TFs) to their DNA regulator sites to activate transcription by “opening up” or “unlocking” chromatin. I will discuss mechanisms transcription factors use to gain access to sites tightly wrapped into nucleosomes. We will find that the interplay between the dynamics of transcription factor binding/dissociation and nucleosome/chromatin DNA compaction is key to understanding TF function. This framework helps in understanding how chromatin regulation of TFs and co-activators prevents certain TFs being “blocked” from their target sites while other TFs efficiently target their sites leading to gene activation.
Join us on Friday, Dec. 1, for this exciting presentation from Poirier. Lunch will be available in Hayes 216 from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and the presentation will begin in Hayes 211/213 at 12:10 p.m. We hope to see you there!