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SCIENCE AT THE EDGE SEMINAR QB/GEDD Friday, March 30 at 11:30am Room 1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg. Refreshments at 11:15 Chuan He Department of Chemistry and Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, The University of Chicago Nucleic Acids Modification/Demodification and Probes for Live Cell Imaging Reversible chemical modifications on nucleic acids and proteins determine cell fates. The five bases that comprise nucleic acids € adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil € can be chemically and enzymatically modified. These chemical events can have significant biological consequences, particularly for gene expression. I will present chemical strategies we have developed to enrich and sequence novel nucleic acid modifications in mammalian genome.1 Several AlkB family proteins have been identified in the human genome that may mediate nucleic acids oxidation. Some of these proteins play critical roles in obesity/diabetes and various cancers. I will present our recent results that reveal the exact nucleic acid substrates and cellular function of some of these intriguing enzymes.2 Based on these discoveries we propose a new mode of biological regulation that depends on reversible RNA modification, for which we termed "RNA Epigenetics".3 I will also present our efforts to develop genetically encoded or small molecule-based probes for live cell imaging of metal ions and hydrogen sulfide.4,5 References 1. Song, C.-X.; Szulwach, K. E.; Fu, Y.; Dai, Q.; Yi, C.; Li, X.; Chen, C.-H.; Zhang, W.; Jian, X.; Wang, J.; Zhang, L.; Looney, T. J.; Zhang, B.; Godley, L. A.; Hicks, L. M.; Lahn, B. T.; Jin, P.* and He, C.* Nature Biotechnol. 29, 68-72 (2011). 2. Yi, C.; Jia, G; Hou, G.; Dai, Q.; Zhang, W.; Zheng, G.; Jian, X.; Yang, C.-G.; Cui, Q. and He, C. Nature 468, 330-333 (2010). 3. He, C. Nature Chem. Biol. 6, 863 (2010). 4. Wegner, S.; Arslan, H.; Sunbul, M.; Yin, J; He, C. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 2567-2569 (2010). 5. Qian, Y.; Karpus, J.; Kabil, O.; Zhu, H.-L.; Banerjee, R.; Zhao, J.; He, C. Nature Commun. 2, 495 (2011). Helen Geiger, Administrative Assistant Quantitative Biology Graduate Program and Gene Expression in Development and Disease Biochemistry 603 Wilson Road, Room 212 East Lansing, MI 48824 Email: [log in to unmask] Phone: 517-432-9895 QB Website: http://www.qbi.msu.edu/ GEDD Website: http://www.gedd.msu.edu/