Biological physics of protein clustering in epigenetic memory and transcriptional control
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Mark Leake (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Badrinarayanan A
(2022)
Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) to Study Dynamics of the Structural Maintenance of Chromosome (SMC) Complex in Live Escherichia coli Bacteria.
in Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)
Dilliway C
(2022)
Working at the interface of physics and biology: An early career researcher perspective
in iScience
Dresser L
(2021)
Amyloid-ß oligomerization monitored by single-molecule stepwise photobleaching.
in Methods (San Diego, Calif.)
Dresser L
(2022)
Tween-20 Induces the Structural Remodeling of Single Lipid Vesicles.
in The journal of physical chemistry letters
Evans DCS
(2023)
GFP fusions of Sec-routed extracellular proteins in Staphylococcus aureus reveal surface-associated coagulase in biofilms.
in Microbial cell (Graz, Austria)
Hunter P
(2022)
Single-molecule and super-resolved imaging deciphers membrane behavior of onco-immunogenic CCR5.
in iScience
Jin X
(2021)
Membraneless organelles formed by liquid-liquid phase separation increase bacterial fitness.
in Science advances
Laidlaw KME
(2021)
A glucose-starvation response governs endocytic trafficking and eisosomal retention of surface cargoes in budding yeast.
in Journal of cell science
Leake M
(2023)
A guide to small fluorescent probes for single-molecule biophysics
in Chemical Physics Reviews
| Description | We developed a new type of light microscopy to allow us to track key proteins in root tips that are involved in regulating whether or not plants flower (a process called vernalization). We have found clear evidence that two of these proteins called Vin3 and Vrn5 operate in clusters of typically 5-20 molecules. This ties in really well with theory modeling that suggested that a "memory" effect for this type of flowering regulation must be due to their being multiple copies of the memory elements. These findings may tell us how general gene memory modifications (so called "epigenetics") are regulated in multiple different organisms, including increasing our understanding of the onset of human diseases such as cancer. |
| Exploitation Route | This work will offer new insights into researchers studying how genes are regulated in living cell. It will also inform researchers who wish to understand how genetic disease start, and how they might be prevented. |
| Sectors | Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/mark-leake-group/home |