Colloquia, Seminars and Conference News
Title : DNA Topology
Date : April 23, 2007. (4:00 pm) Tea starts half an hour before each seminar
Location: ITEB 336
Speaker : Prof. De Witt Sumners
Abstract:
Cellular DNA is a long, thread-like molecule with
remarkably complex topology. Enzymes that manipulate the geometry
and topology of cellular DNA perform many important cellular
processes (including segregation of daughter chromosomes, gene
regulation, DNA repair, and generation of antibody diversity).
Some enzymes pass DNA through itself via enzyme-bridged transient
breaks in the DNA; other enzymes break the DNA apart and reconnect it
to different ends. In the topological approach to enzymology,
circular DNA is incubated with an enzyme, producing an enzyme
signature in the form of DNA knots and links. By observing the
changes in DNA geometry (supercoiling) and topology (knotting and
linking) due to enzyme action, the enzyme binding and mechanism can
often be characterized. This talk will discuss topological models for
DNA strand passage and exchange, introducing the tangle model for
analysis of DNA site-specific recombination experiments.
Bio:
[Back]
