CHROMAPHY · Structural preferences of histone variants during chromatin assembly in Physarum polycephalum
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2014-01-01 → 2015-12-31
- EU contribution
- €161,969
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-IEF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Structural preferences of histone variants during chromatin assembly in Physarum polycephalum.
The ChromaPhy project was an EU-funded research project supporting one post-doctoral fellow at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich for 20 months. The project was funded under the EU's 7th framework programme as a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (IEF), and ran from January 1st, 2014 until August 31st, 2015. ChromaPhy's research focused on mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance. By combining novel techniques in chemical biology and live-cell imaging, we have developed a novel method to incorporate synthetic histones into chromatin. We have pioneered the use of the organism Physarum polycephalum as a model for studying this incorporation. This research has led to the development of novel reagents that can be used to probe components of the chromatin assembly pathway. Our detailed results will be disseminated as a peer-reviewed publication in the research literature, and the novel reagents are immediately available on request to interested researchers.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
One of the main challenges of 21st century biology is to describe the many factors controlling our genes – our ‘epigenetics’. Having sequenced the human genome in 1999, and the genomes of many other organisms since then, we already know what genes these organisms have, but we must now study where those genes are used, in which cell types, during which stage of development, and in response to what environmental factors. This ‘epigenetic’ knowledge is crucial to the understanding of development and disease.Current models in this field can demonstrate that epigenetic information is passed through generations, but they cannot fully explain how the information is inherited. The ChromaPhy project studies the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance. We combine novel techniques of chemical biology and live-cell imaging with those of molecular genetics, in the model organism Physarum polycephalum. Physarum has a unique ability to absorb whole proteins from its environment into its cellular physiology, making it ideal for our study. ChromaPhy brings together four research groups in Germany and France to support and enable the UK-trained researcher. Because chromatin components are some of the most highly conserved proteins in nature, discoveries we learn from Physarum polycephalum will be directly applicable to human biology.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · PlaneggCoordinatorGermany
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union