From beads on a string to the pearls of regulation: the structure and dynamics of chromatin

Topics: Biochemistry, Keywords: Chromatin

Date: /3/4/ August 2011, Cambridge, United Kingdom, Europe

Web Site, Contact: elizabeth.faircliffe [at] biochemistry.org

  

Official Information:

Meeting background

Chromatin is widely recognized as playing many key roles in biology beyond serving as a tidy storage structure for DNA. In compacting the DNA, chromatin structure also influences key processes, including the expression of genetic information, the efficiency for mediating recovery from DNA damage, and the imprinting of gene expression status on daughter cells following cell division. The fundamental building block of chromatin organization is the nucleosome. Higher order chromatin assembly is influenced by covalent modifications of the proteins at the nucleosome core, which act as platforms to recruit other proteins, and the underlying DNA sequence that influences nucleosome positioning.

The meeting will present advances in our understanding of chromatin structure and organization and the impact of these findings on our understanding of biological function. The meeting will bring together experts in the field to present recent advances in structural models for chromatin and the role of accessory factors that regulate its organization. Topics to be covered will include the structure of the nucleosome core particle and the consequences resulting from histone modification and inclusion of histone variants, the analysis of nucleosome positioning in vivo and DNA sequence periodicities that influence location. Wider perspectives to be addressed include the relationship of chromatin and DNA repair, the role of high mobility group proteins and linker histones in chromatin organisation and function, and models for hierarchical assembly of chromatin. The meeting will mark the retirement of Professor Jean Thomas, who has made major contributions to the field.

Topics

* Sequence determinants of nucleosome positional preferences
* Mechanism of chromatin remodelling
* Chromatin and DNA damage repair
* Nucleosome core structure and modification
* Higher order assembly of nucleosomes into filaments
* High mobility group protein structure and function in chromatin