Research Projects of the WATERBORG Laboratory
My much appreciated collaborators

Look at the Chromatin HomePage

Alfalfa Medicago sativa as a homogeneous 'plant' in tissue culture (A2 cells M. varia)

• Kinetic Analysis of Histone Acetylation Turnover and Trichostatin A induced Hyper- and Hypoacetylation in Alfalfa by J.H.Waterborg and T.Kapros. Reprint: Biochemistry and Cell Biology, 80, 279-293 (2002)
• Functional dynamics of reversible acetylation of histones, especially histone H3 variants (replication-dependent H3.1 and Replacement H3.2, preferentially deposited in transcribed chromatin [see slides ]) and histone H4
• Interdependence of irreversible lysine methylation and reversible lysine acetylation in histone H3

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

• S. cerevisiae has the highest level of histone acetylation known, but to see all histone acetylation present one should take precautions! See: J. Biol. Chem. 275, 13007 (2000)
• Histone acetylation in S. cerevisiae is fast! See: Biochemistry 40, 2599-2605 (2001)
• To see immediately how FAST acetylation turnover is, you can look at some slides presented at the 21th Annual West Coast Chromatin and Chromosomes Meeting, Asilimar Conference Center, Pacific Grove CA, December 16-19, 1999.

Chlamydomonas as a Simple 'Plant' model system

• Dynamics of histone acetylation in Chlamydomonas See: J. Biol. Chem. 273, 27602-27609 (1998)
• Test the effects of primary sequence variants of plant histone H3 variants on synthesis, incorporation into chromatin and nucleosome stability during gene transcription
• Analysis of the highly, dynamically acetylated chromatin compartment in Chlamydomonas nuclei

The Evolution of Replacement Histone H3 Genes

• When did Replacement Histone H3 genes (with introns) arise in plants ?
• Are replication and Replacement histone H3 variant proteins equivalent in nucleosome transcription, stability, assembly ?

Going GAGA over polyPyrimidine motivs in Replacement histone H3 genes

Do plants have transcription factors like the Drosophila GAGA factor that displace nucleosomes to facilitate gene transcription ?

Past and Present Projects

• Review on the Function of Dynamic Acetylation.
• Dynamics of Histone Acetylation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. References (1999-present, UMKC)
• Histone Acetylation and Synthesis in Alfalfa and other Higher Plants. References (1990-present, UMKC)
• Histone Acetylation and Synthesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. References (1995-present, UMKC)
• Cloning and Characterization of Histone H3 Genes in Alfalfa. References (1995-1997, UMKC)
• Histone Acetylation in Alfalfa. References (1984-1988, UNReno)
• Histone Acetylation in the Cell Cycle of Physarum polycephalum. References (1980-1983, UCDavis)
• Method papers. References (1984-present)
• Analysis of Replication Origins in Physarum. References (1983-1984, U Sussex, UK)
• Nucleases in Physarum polycephalum, Ph.D. Dissertation. References (1975-1980, U Nijmegen, NL)