Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2008 APS March Meeting
Volume 53, Number 2
Monday–Friday, March 10–14, 2008; New Orleans, Louisiana
Session B7: Gene Regulation |
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Sponsoring Units: DBP GSNP Chair: Sima Setayeshgar, Indiana University Room: Morial Convention Center RO5 |
Monday, March 10, 2008 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
B7.00001: Max Delbruck Biological Physics Prize Talk: The Biophysics of Gene Regulation, Studied One Molecule at a Time Invited Speaker: Advances have led to a new field, dubbed single molecule biophysics. Prominent among the new technologies is the optical trap, or `optical tweezers.' Sensitive systems for measuring force and displacement in optical traps permit the nanomechanical properties of individual macromolecules to be explored with unprecedented precision, revealing behaviors heretofore obscured by ensemble-based approaches. This talk will focus on some of our current work with single-molecule systems, including transcription by RNA polymerase and structural transitions in nucleic acids. We developed high-resolution instrumentation that has broken the nanometer barrier and is thereby able to detect displacements down to the atomic level, in aqueous buffer at room temperature. Consequently, we can monitor the motions of RNA polymerase molecules in real time as these step from base to base along DNA. On the practical side, base-pair resolution makes it possible to sequence DNA in a new way, based on enzyme motions, and points to new directions in nanoscience. The improved stability afforded by the current generation of optical trapping apparatus has allowed us to reconstruct the complete energy landscapes for folding transitions in nucleic-acid hairpins. Recently, we have turned our attention to the problem of co-transcriptional folding, aptamers, and riboswitches formed in nascent mRNAs, and to the DNA or RNA sequence elements that regulate expression. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 10, 2008 11:51AM - 12:27PM |
B7.00002: Using DNA mechanics to predict intrinsic and extrinsic nucleosome positioning signals Invited Speaker: In eukaryotic genomes, nucleosomes function to compact DNA and to regulate access to it both by simple physical occlusion and by providing the substrate for numerous covalent epigenetic tags. While nucleosome positions in vitro are determined by sequence alone, in vivo competition with other DNA-binding factors and action of chromatin remodeling enzymes play a role that needs to be quantified. We developed a biophysical, DNA mechanics-based model for the sequence dependence of DNA bending energies, and validated it against a collection of in vitro free energies of nucleosome formation and a nucleosome crystal structure; we also successfully designed both strong and poor histone binding sequences ab initio. For in vivo data from S.cerevisiae, the strongest positioning signal came from the competition with other factors rather than intrinsic nucleosome sequence preferences. Based on sequence alone, our model predicts that functional transcription factor binding sites tend to be covered by nucleosomes, yet are uncovered in vivo because functional sites cluster within a single nucleosome footprint and thus make transcription factors bind cooperatively. Similarly a weak enhancement of nucleosome binding in the TATA region becomes a strong depletion when the TATA-binding protein is included, in quantitative agreement with experiment. Our model distinguishes multiple ways in which genomic sequence influences nucleosome positions, and thus provides alternative explanations for several genome-wide experimental findings. In the future our approach will be used to rationally alter gene expression levels in model systems through redesign of nucleosome occupancy profiles. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 10, 2008 12:27PM - 1:03PM |
B7.00003: Towards a Quantitative Understanding of Single-Gene Transcription Invited Speaker: The transcription of the genetic information in DNA into RNA is the first step in protein synthesis. This process is highly regulated and is carried out by RNA polymerase (RNAP), a complex molecular motor. Here we discuss some of the consequences of a Brownian ratchet model of transcription, which incorporates internal structural degrees of freedom of RNAP and kinetic barriers to backtracking of RNAP resulting from steric clashes with co-transcriptionally folded RNA. This approach was previously used (a) to successfully predict sequence dependent positions of pauses during the elongation process [1,2]; (b) to study the behavior of a number of mutants of RNAP, with different elongation behaviors, believed to involve different internal motions of the enzyme [3]; and (c) to gain insight into the interpretation of single-molecule transcription elongation experiments [2]. The same model can be used to characterize the stability of the elongation complex at specific termination sequences, places along DNA where, with high probability, RNAP releases the RNA transcript and disengages from the template. Recent experimental results on termination reinforce a picture of the elongation complex as a flexible structure, not a rigid body [4]. In more general terms, some of the modeling to be presented raises fundamental issues related to ``model comparison'' and ``model selection,'' the problem of identifying and characterizing quantitative models on the basis of limited sets of experimental data [5]. \newline \newline [1] Tadigotla V. R., \'O Maoil\'eidigh D., Sengupta A. M., Epshtein V., Ebright R. H., Nudler E., Ruckenstein A. E., Thermodynamic and Kinetic Modeling of Transcriptional Pausing. \it{Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A}\rm,103:4439-4444 (2006). \newline [2] D. \'O Maoil\'eidigh, Ph.D. Thesis, Rutgers University, 2006 \newline [3] Bar-Nahum, G., Epshtein, V., Ruckenstein, A. E., Rafikov, R., Mustaev, A. and Nudler E., A Ratchet Mechanism of Transcription Elongation and its Control. \it{Cell,} \rm120:183-193 (2005). \newline [4] Epshtein, V., Cardinale, C.J., Ruckenstein, A.E., Borukhov, S., and Nudler, E., An Allosteric Path to Transcription Termination. \it{Mol. Cell,}\rm28; 991-1001 (2007). \newline [5] Vasisht R. Tadigotla, Ph.D. Thesis, Rutgers University, 2006 [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 10, 2008 1:03PM - 1:39PM |
B7.00004: Information flow and optimization in transcriptional regulation Invited Speaker: In the simplest view of transcriptional regulation, the expression of a gene is turned on or off by the changes in the concentration of a transcription factor (TF). Here we analyze transcriptional regulatory elements with the tools of information theory. Recent data on noise levels in gene expression are used to show that it should be possible to transmit much more than just one regulatory bit. Realizing this optimal information capacity would require that the dynamic range of TF concentrations used by the cell, the input/output relation of the regulatory module, and the noise levels of binding and transcription satisfy certain matching relations. This parameter-free prediction is in good agreement with recent experiments on the Bicoid/Hunchback system in the early Drosophila embryo, and this system achieves around 90\% of its theoretical maximum information transmission. The dependence of information capacity on parameters that govern gene expression for simple, single-input / single-output, genetic regulatory elements is systematically examined and the extensions of the work to genetic circuits consisting of several interacting elements are presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 10, 2008 1:39PM - 2:15PM |
B7.00005: The Genomic Code for Nucleosome Positioning Invited Speaker: Eukaryotic genomes encode an additional layer of genetic information, superimposed on top of the regulatory and coding information, that controls the organization of the genomic DNA into arrays of nucleosomes. We have developed a partial ability to read this nucleosome positioning code and predict the in vivo locations of nucleosomes. Our results suggest that genomes utilize the nucleosome positioning code to facilitate specific chromosome functions including to delineate functional versus nonfunctional binding sites for key gene regulatory proteins, and to define the next higher level of chromosome structure itself. [Preview Abstract] |
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