Heterochromatin Protein 1 and its Influence on the Structure of Chromatin (Serena Sanulli)

<p class="md-end-block md-p">In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we caught up with Serena Sanulli from Stanford University to talk about her work on Heterochromatin Protein 1 (HP1), the structure of chromatin on the atomic-scale and the meso-scale, and phase separation. </p> <p class="md-end-block md-p md-focus">The Laboratory of Serena Sanulli is interested in finding connections between changes that happen on the nucleosomal level and the resulting impact on chromatin conformation on the meso-scale. They combine methods like NMR and Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange-MS with Cell Biology and Genetics. This enables them to dissect how cells use the diverse biophysical properties of chromatin to regulate gene expression across length and time scales. </p> <p class="md-end-block md-p">A second focus of the lab is HP1, which interacts with the nucleosome and changes its conformation, enabling the compaction of the genome into heterochromatin, effectively silencing genes in that region. A high concentration of HP1 leads to the phenomenon of phase separation in the nucleus, which the Sanulli lab is now investigating. </p> <p class="md-end-block md-p"> </p> <p class="md-end-block md-p">References</p> <ul class="ul-list"><li class="md-list-item"> <p class="md-end-block md-p">Sanulli, S., Justin, N., Teissandier, A., Ancelin, K., Portoso, M., Caron, M., Michaud, A., Lombard, B., da Rocha, S. T., Offer, J., Loew, D., Servant, N., Wassef, M., Burlina, F., Gamblin, S. J., Heard, E., & Margueron, R. (2015). Jarid2 Methylation via the PRC2 Complex Regulates H3K27me3 Deposition during Cell Differentiation. Molecular Cell, 57(5), 769–783. <a href='https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2014.12.020'>https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2014.12.020</a></p> </li> <li class="md-list-item"> <p class="md-end-block md-p">Sanulli, S., Trnka, M. J., Dharmarajan, V., Tibble, R. W., Pascal, B. D., Burlingame, A. L., Griffin, P. R., Gross, J. D., & Narlikar, G. J. (2019). HP1 reshapes nucleosome core to promote phase separation of he