The meiotic histone code
Dr. Terry Orr-Weaver and colleagues (MIT & Nagasaki University School of Medicine) present the first genetic analysis of the recently identified nucleosomal histone kinase, NHK-1. The authors generated NHK-1-mutant Drosophila fruit flies, and through cytological analysis of the resulting sterile female oocytes, determined that this histone kinase is necessary for disassembly of the synaptonemal complex, condensin loading, and the further acetylation of histones H3 and H4.
This work provides novel evidence of the importance of histone modifications in regulating meiotic chromosome dynamics. “This work demonstrates a crucial function for modification of the histone proteins in the architectural changes chromosomes undergo in meiosis.
Modification of the chromatin proteins tightly associated with the DNA ensures the proper segregation of chromosomes in meiosis and thus prevention of miscarriages and birth defects,” explains Dr. Orr-Weaver.
Media Contact
More Information:
http://www.cshl.eduAll latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry
Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.
Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.
Newest articles
Lighting up the future
New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…
Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code
Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….
Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….