Vincenzo Pirrotta

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Vincenzo Pirrotta (born 1942) is a biologist known for his work on Drosophila and polycomb group proteins. [1] Born in Palermo, Italy, Pirotta migrated to the United States and enrolled at Harvard University. While at Harvard, he obtained undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellowships in physical chemistry and molecular biology. He later moved to Europe where he began studying gene regulation in bacteriophages and Drosophila (fruit flies). [1] He was appointed assistant professor at the University of Basel in 1972. Pirotta returned to the United States, earning a full professorship at the Baylor College of Medicine in 1992. He then took up the position of professor of zoology at the University of Geneva in 2002, and in 2004 became a distinguished professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at Rutgers University. [2]

Research

Pirrotta is known for his genetic work on Drosophila (fruit flies). He primarily studies polycomb group proteins (PcG), which he began studying when he moved to Geneva University. Polycomb group proteins are protein complexes that change the shape of chromatin, which causes heritable phenotypical changes in offspring. [3] They do not cause a change in the DNA sequence. The polycomb group proteins along with the trithorax group (trxG) repress and activate Hox genes. Pirrotta studied how response elements of PcG and TrxG effect how the silent and active chromatin are inherited in Drosophila melanogaster. [4] He has also previously worked on identifying recombinant mutations marked by the hs-neo gene. [5]

Related Research Articles

Heterochromatin is a tightly packed form of DNA or condensed DNA, which comes in multiple varieties. These varieties lie on a continuum between the two extremes of constitutive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin. Both play a role in the expression of genes. Because it is tightly packed, it was thought to be inaccessible to polymerases and therefore not transcribed; however, according to Volpe et al. (2002), and many other papers since, much of this DNA is in fact transcribed, but it is continuously turned over via RNA-induced transcriptional silencing (RITS). Recent studies with electron microscopy and OsO4 staining reveal that the dense packing is not due to the chromatin.

Hox genes, a subset of homeobox genes, are a group of related genes that specify regions of the body plan of an embryo along the head-tail axis of animals. Hox proteins encode and specify the characteristics of 'position', ensuring that the correct structures form in the correct places of the body. For example, Hox genes in insects specify which appendages form on a segment, and Hox genes in vertebrates specify the types and shape of vertebrae that will form. In segmented animals, Hox proteins thus confer segmental or positional identity, but do not form the actual segments themselves.

Polycomb-group proteins are a family of protein complexes first discovered in fruit flies that can remodel chromatin such that epigenetic silencing of genes takes place. Polycomb-group proteins are well known for silencing Hox genes through modulation of chromatin structure during embryonic development in fruit flies. They derive their name from the fact that the first sign of a decrease in PcG function is often a homeotic transformation of posterior legs towards anterior legs, which have a characteristic comb-like set of bristles.

Paul Daniel Schedl is a Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EZH2</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) is a histone-lysine N-methyltransferase enzyme encoded by EZH2 gene, that participates in histone methylation and, ultimately, transcriptional repression. EZH2 catalyzes the addition of methyl groups to histone H3 at lysine 27, by using the cofactor S-adenosyl-L-methionine. Methylation activity of EZH2 facilitates heterochromatin formation thereby silences gene function. Remodeling of chromosomal heterochromatin by EZH2 is also required during cell mitosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PHC1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Polyhomeotic-like protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PHC1 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PHC2</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Polyhomeotic-like protein 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PHC2 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BAP1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

BRCA1 associated protein-1 is a deubiquitinating enzyme that in humans is encoded by the BAP1 gene. BAP1 encodes an 80.4 kDa nuclear-localizing protein with a ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase (UCH) domain that gives BAP1 its deubiquitinase activity. Recent studies have shown that BAP1 and its fruit fly homolog, Calypso, are members of the polycomb-group proteins (PcG) of highly conserved transcriptional repressors required for long-term silencing of genes that regulate cell fate determination, stem cell pluripotency, and other developmental processes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MLLT1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Protein ENL is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MLLT1 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ASH1L</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

ASH1L is a histone-lysine N-methyltransferase enzyme encoded by the ASH1L gene located at chromosomal band 1q22. ASH1L is the human homolog of Drosophila Ash1.

Trithorax-group proteins (TrxG) are a heterogeneous collection of proteins whose main action is to maintain gene expression. They can be categorized into three general classes based on molecular function:

  1. histone-modifying TrxG proteins
  2. chromatin-remodeling TrxG proteins
  3. DNA-binding TrxG proteins,
<span class="mw-page-title-main">PRC2</span>

PRC2 is one of the two classes of polycomb-group proteins or (PcG). The other component of this group of proteins is PRC1.

Cellular memory modules are a form of epigenetic inheritance that allow cells to maintain their original identity after a series of cell divisions and developmental processes. Cellular memory modules implement these preserved characteristics into transferred environments through transcriptional memory. Cellular memory modules are primarily found in Drosophila.

Homeotic selector genes confer segment identity in Drosophila. They encode homeodomain proteins which interact with Hox and other homeotic genes to initiate segment-specific gene regulation. Homeodomain proteins are transcription factors that share a DNA-binding domain called the homeodomain. Changes in the expression and function of homeotic genes are responsible for the changes in the morphology of the limbs of arthropods as well as in the axial skeletons of vertebrates. Mutations in homeotic selector genes do not lead to elimination of a segment or pattern, but instead cause the segment to develop incorrectly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bxd (gene)</span> Long non-coding RNA

Bithoraxoid (bxd) is a long non-coding RNA found in Drosophila. It silences the expression of the Ultrabithorax (Ubx) gene by transcriptional interference.

M33 is a gene. It is a mammalian homologue of Drosophila Polycomb. It localises to euchromatin within interphase nuclei, but it is enriched within the centromeric heterochromatin of metaphase chromosomes. In mice, the official symbol of M33 gene styled Cbx2 and the official name chromobox 2 are maintained by the MGI. Also known as pc; MOD2. In human ortholog CBX2, synonyms CDCA6, M33, SRXY5 from orthology source HGNC. M33 was isolated by means of the structural similarity of its chromodomain. It contains a region of homology shared by Xenopus and Drosophila in the fifth exon. Polycomb genes in Drosophila mediate changes in higher-order chromatin structure to maintain the repressed state of developmentally regulated genes. It may also involved in the campomelic syndrome and neoplastic disorders linked to allele loss in this region. Disruption of the murine M33 gene, displayed posterior transformation of the sternal ribs and vertebral columns.

Philip William Ingham FRS, FMedSci, Hon. FRCP is a British geneticist, currently the Toh Kian Chui Distinguished Professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, a partnership between Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Imperial College, London. Previously, he was the inaugural Director of the Living Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, UK and prior to that was Vice Dean, Research at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

Plants depend on epigenetic processes for proper function. Epigenetics is defined as "the study of changes in gene function that are mitotically and/or meiotically heritable and that do not entail a change in DNA sequence". The area of study examines protein interactions with DNA and its associated components, including histones and various other modifications such as methylation, which alter the rate or target of transcription. Epi-alleles and epi-mutants, much like their genetic counterparts, describe changes in phenotypes due to epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetics in plants has attracted scientific enthusiasm because of its importance in agriculture.

Epigenetics of human development is the study of how epigenetics effects human development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Jenuwein</span> German scientist

Thomas Jenuwein is a German scientist working in the fields of epigenetics, chromatin biology, gene regulation and genome function.

References

  1. 1 2 "Prof. Vincenzo Pirrotta". HSTalks. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  2. ↑ Vincenzo Pirrotta (1 January 2017). "Editor's Biography". Polycomb Group Proteins. Elsevier Science. p. xv. ISBN   978-0-12-809822-6.
  3. ↑ Di Croce, Luciano; Helin, Kristian (2013). "Transcriptional regulation by Polycomb group proteins". Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. 20 (10): 1147–1155. doi:10.1038/nsmb.2669. ISSN   1545-9993. PMID   24096405. S2CID   2681793.
  4. ↑ Schuettengruber, Bernd (February 3, 2007). "Genome Regulation by Polycomb and Trithorax Proteins". Cell. 128 (4): 735–45. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2007.02.009 . PMID   17320510. S2CID   6492075.
  5. ↑ Xu, Tian (1993). "Analysis of genetic mosaics in developing and adult Drosophila tissues". Development. 117 (4): 1223–37. doi:10.1242/dev.117.4.1223. PMID   8404527.
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