Mariano Labrador, Ph.D.

 

Research Statement

Research in our laboratory is focused in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the establishment and maintenance of chromatin domains in chromosomes. Chromatin structure and chromatin organization influence most biological processes occurring within the nucleus during the cell cycle and have a direct regulatory role for example in gene transcription, DNA replication, recombination and chromosome condensation during mitosis. Chromatin, rather than just the DNA sequence, has revealed itself as an essential component required for the organization and transmission of the genetic information. Identifying the principles governing the establishment of structural domains along the chromatin fiber in specific cells or biological tissues and their maintenance through cell division is therefore fundamental to better understand biological processes such as cell and tissue differentiation, the molecular basis of development, cancer and many other human genetic diseases.

Selected Publications

Schoborg TA, Labrador M. (2010) The phylogenetic distribution of non-CTCF protein insulators is limited to insects and reveals that insulator protein BEAF-32 is Drosophila lineage specific. Journal of Molecular evolution. Jan;70(1):74-84. Epub 2009 Dec 19.

Wallace HA, Plata MP, Kang HJ, Ross M, Labrador M. (2010) Chromatin insulators specifically associate with different levels of higher order chromatin organization in Drosophila. Chromosoma. Apr;119(2):177-94. Epub 2009 Dec 23.

Plata MP, Kang HJ, Zhang S, Kuruganti S, Hsu SJ, Labrador M (2009) Changes in chromatin structure correlate with transcriptional activity of nucleolar rDNA in polytene chromosomes. Chromosoma. Jun;118(3):303-22. Epub 2008 Dec 9

Labrador M and Corces VG (2003) Extensive exon reshuffling over evolutionary time coupled to trans-splicing in Drosophila. Genome Res. 13(10):2220-8. (pdf)

Labrador M and Corces VG (2003) Phosphorylation of histone H3 during transcriptional activation depends on promoter structure. Genes Dev. 17(1):43-8. (pdf)

Labrador M and Corces VG (2002) Setting the boundaries of chromatin domains and nuclear organization. Cell 111(2):151-4. (pdf)

Mongelard F, Labrador M, Baxter EM, Gerasimova TI and Corces VG (2002) Trans-splicing as a novel mechanism to explain interallelic complementation in Drosophila. Genetics 160(4):1481-7. (pdf)

Labrador M and Corces VG (2002) Interactions between transposable elements and the host genome. In “Mobile DNA II”, N Craig, R Craigie, M Gellert and A Lambowitz, eds. ASM Press, pp 1008-1023, Washington, D. C.

Labrador M and Corces VG (2001) Protein determinants of insertional specificity for the Drosophila gypsy retrovirus. Genetics 158(3):1101-10. (pdf)

Labrador M, Mongelard F, Plata-Rengifo P, Baxter EM, Corces VG and Gerasimova TI (2001) Protein encoding by both DNA strands. Nature 409(6823):1000. (pdf)

 

Contact Information

Office:
Room F-237
Walters Life Sciences
Phone: (865) 974-3690

Lab:
Room E-206
Walters Life Sciences
Phone: (865) 974-3790

Email: labrador@utk.edu