Molecular Studies of Chromosomal Protein H-NS"

染色体蛋白H-NS的分子研究"

• 批准号: 9122048
• 负责人: Norman Higgins
• 金额: $ 28.5万
• 依托单位: University of Alabama at Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-01-15 至 1995-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9122048&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Molecular; Studies; Chromosomal; Protein; NS

Molecular architecture of chromosomes remains one of the major mysteries of modern genetics. In spite of impressive advances made in learning the nucleotide sequence of chromosomes, the mechanisms of packing functional DNA into the small space available is unsolved. One organizing mechanism is supercoiling. DNA is found supercoiled in all organisms to about the same extent. Another puzzle is the fact that only a fraction of the genetic information is actively used at any instant. Learning how DNA is organized in both active and inactive regions of chromosomes is known as the domain problem. Bacteriophage MU is one of the most useful tools for studying chromosome structure. Mu is a transposon that randomly inserts itself into bacterial chromosomes and creates its own supercoiled domain using host enzymes and proteins. Further, through novel Mu genetics, it was discovered that one of the most abundant chromosomal proteins in E. coli, H-NS, supercoils DNA. DNA supercoiled by H-NS is inactive for transcription. Thus, H-NS is a prime candidate for organizing inactive supercoiled domains. Experiments are designed to probe the structure of H-NS interactions with Mu DNA using genetic approaches as well as chemical and enzymatic probes and electron microscopy.

染色体的分子结构仍然是 现代遗传学的奥秘 尽管取得了令人印象深刻的进展， 在了解染色体的核苷酸序列时， 将功能性DNA包装到可用的小空间中， 未破案件 一种组织机制是超螺旋。 发现DNA 在所有生物体中超螺旋的程度大致相同。 另一 令人困惑的是，只有一小部分的遗传信息， 在任何时刻都在积极使用。 了解DNA是如何组织的 染色体的活性区和非活性区被称为 领域问题。噬菌体MU是最有用的工具之一 用于研究染色体结构。 Mu是一种转座子， 随机插入到细菌染色体中， 使用宿主酶和蛋白质的超螺旋结构域。 此外，本发明还 通过新的Mu基因，人们发现， E. coli、H-NS、超螺旋DNA。 被H-NS超螺旋的DNA对于转录是无活性的。 因此，H-NS 是组织非活性超螺旋结构域的主要候选者。 设计了实验来探索H-NS的结构 使用遗传方法与Mu DNA相互作用， 化学和酶探针和电子显微镜。