Event Date
MIC (Microbiology Course) 291: Selected Topics in Microbiology
Work-in-Progress Seminars
Speaker: Ashok S. Bhagwat, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, and Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Wayne State University
Dr. Bhagwat presents: “AID/APOBEC Enzymes in Replication, Transcription and Recombination”
About the seminar: The mammalian AID/APOBEC enzymes are single-strand specific cytosine deaminases that play a role in both adaptive and innate immunity. While AID is essential for the creation of antigen-specific antibodies, the human APOBEC3A through APOBEC3H enzymes cause mutations in the genomes of infecting viruses restricting their growth. AID acts during the transcription of immunoglobulin genes and is required for both somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination; two processes essential for antibody maturation. However, expression of these enzymes is also associated with mutations and chromosome translocations in tumor cells. We have developed tools for quantifying uracils created by these enzymes in genomic DNA and to map the uracils at the whole genome level using a technique called uracil pull-down sequencing, UPD-seq. Using this technique, we have investigated the replicative strand bias of these enzymes and the relationship between uracil creation and strand breaks..
Host: Wolf-Dietrich Heyer