Laboratory for Chromatin Dynamics
Team Leader
Jun-ichi NAKAYAMA (Ph.D.)
Multicellular organisms are made up of diverse populations of many different types of cells, each of which contains an identical set of genetic information coded in its DNA. Cell differentiation and the process of development itself depend on the ability of individual cells to maintain the expression of different genes. In recent years, we have begun to understand that the maintenance of specific patterns of gene expression does not rely on direct modifications to the DNA sequence encoding the organism's genome, but rather takes place in a heritable, "epigenetic" manner. Our team investigates how modifications to the structure and configuration of chromatin (complexes of nuclear DNA and proteins that provide the structural basis of chromosomes) contribute to epigenetic gene regulation and how such modifications are transmitted over generations of cellular division by studying events at the molecular scale in the model organism, fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe), and in cultured mammalian cells.
- Revealing the mechanisms underlying the establishment and maintenance of higher-order chromatin structure
- Characterization of factors which modulate chromatin structure to control epigenetic gene regulation
- January 15, 2010
- The role of chromatin structure in the regulation of gene switching
- Hiragami-Hamada, K., Shinmyozu, K., Hamada, D., Tatsu, Y., Uegaki, S., Fujiwara, S. and Nakayama, J.:
"N-terminal phosphorylation of HP1α promotes its chromatin binding"
Mol. Cell. Biol. 31, 1186-1200 (2011) - Shirai, A., Sadaie, M., Shinmyozu, K., and Nakayama, J.:
"Methylation of ribosomal protein L42 regulates ribosomal function and stress-adapted cell growth"
J. Biol. Chem. 285, 22448-22460 (2010) - Hayakawa, T., Zhang, F., Hayakawa, N., Ohtani, Y., Shinmyozu, K., Nakayama, J. and Andressen, PR.:
"MRG15 directly binds to PALB2 and stimulates homology-directed repair of chromosomal breaks"
J. Cell Sci. 123, 1124-1130 (2010) - Iida, T., Nakayama, J., and Moazed, D.:
"siRNA-Mediated Heterochromatin Establishment Requires HP1 and Is Associated with Antisense Transcription"
Mol. Cell, 31, 178-189 (2008). - Sadaie, M., Shinmyozu, K., and Nakayama, J.:
"A conserved SET-domain methyltransferase, Set11, modifies ribosomal protein Rpl12 in fission yeast"
J. Biol. Chem., 283, 7185-7195 (2008). - Buker, S.M., Iida, T., Buhler, M., Villen, J., Gygi, S.P., Nakayama, J., and Moazed, D.:
"Two different Argonaute complexes are required for siRNA generation and heterochromatin assembly in fission yeast"
Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol., 14, 200-207 (2007). - Iida, T., Kawaguchi, R., and Nakayama, J.:
"Cytoplasmic siRNA-degrading ribonuclease, Eri1, negatively regulates heterochromatin assembly in fission yeast"
Curr. Biol., 16, 1459-1464 (2006). - Sadaie, M., Iida, T., Urano, T., and Nakayama, J.:
"A chromodomain protein, Chp1, is required for the establishment of heterochromatin in fission yeast"
EMBO J., 23, 3825-3835 (2004). - Nakayama, J., Rice, J.C., Strahl, B.D., Allis, C.D., and Grewal, S.I.S.:
"Role of histone H3 lysine 9 methylation in epigenetic control of heterochromatin assembly"
Science, 292, 110-113 (2001). - Nakayama, J., Klar, A.J.S., and Grewal, S.I.S.:
"A chromodomain protein, Swi6, performs imprinting function in fission yeast during mitosis and meiosis"
Cell, 101, 307-317 (2000).
Principal Investigator
- Jun-ichi NAKAYAMA
- Team Leader
Members
- Aki HAYASHI
- Research Scientist
- Atsuko SHIRAI
- Special Postdoctoral Researcher
- Mayumi ISHIDA
- Research Associate
- Yasuko OHTANI
- Technical Staff I
- Rika KAWAGUCHI
- Technical Staff I