Molecular mechanisms of chromosome assembly mediated by condensins

染色体的组装和分离是确保遗传信息忠实地遗传和表达的两个基本过程。在目前的研究中，我们研究了在这些过程中起核心作用的凝聚蛋白（和内聚蛋白）的结构、功能和调控。各种各样的实验系统（青蛙卵提取物、组织培养细胞、小鼠卵母细胞、红藻和细菌细胞）和跨学科方法（细胞生物学、分子遗传学、生物化学和结构生物学）有效地结合在一起，形成了这类高度复杂的分子机器如何在体内和体外工作的综合图景。当前研究的结果还扩展和深化了我们对染色体结构和伴随凝血蛋白失调的人类疾病病因学的进化见解。

The assembly and segregation of chromosomes represent two of the fundamental processes that ensure faithful inheritance and expression of the genetic information. In the current study, we have investigated the structure, function and regulation of condensins (and cohesins) that play central roles in these processes. A wide variety of experimental systems (frog egg extracts, tissue culture cells, mouse oocytes, and red-algal and bacterial cells) and interdisciplinary approaches (cell biology, molecular genetics, biochemistry, and structural biology) were effectively combined, leading to an integrated picture of how this highly sophisticated class of molecular machines might work in vivo and in vitro. The outcome of the current study also expanded and deepened our evolutionary insights into chromosome architecture and the etiology of a human disease accompanying condensin’s misregulation.