Oct 17:  Mitotic inheritance of epigenetic information

Speaker：Bing Zhu, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing

Host: Pro. Jiemin Wong

When: 2013-10-17  13:30

Where: Conference Room 534, School of Life Sciences

Abstract: DNA is unarguably the carrier of genetic information. However, DNA sequence alone cannot explain how hundreds of cell types in a complex multi-cellular organism, such as a human individual can possess distinct transcription programs, while sharing the same genetic information. This is believed to be achieved by fine-tuning our genetic information with a so-called “epigenetic” system. To fulfill the two basic tasks challenging the multi-cellular organisms, epigenetic system must simultaneously offer dual characteristics, “Plasticity & Inheritability”. Plasticity allows the transformation of one genome into hundreds of epigenomes and transcriptomes, whereas inheritability permits the maintenance of every single epigenome and its corresponding transcriptome.

Several histone modifications have been shown to be critical in classic epigenetic phenomena, including Position effect variegation, Polycomb silencing and dosage compensation. How newly deposited histones acquire these modifications during/after DNA replication is vital for understanding the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance. We attempt to address this important question using combinatory approaches by integrating biochemistry, quantitative mass spectrometry and high-throughput sequencing. In this seminar, I will highlight some of our recent progresses along this direction.