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| The Laboratory
of Nancy
L. Craig Howard Hughes Medical Institute Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics Johns Hopkins School of Medicine 725 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205 To contact Nancy: ncraig@jhmi.edu To contact the lab: 410. 955.2731 410. 955.3933 Nancy is a member of the Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology (BCMB) Graduate Program |
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| hAT
Family Transposons We have developed in vitro transposition systems for several of these elements, using purified transposases. Notably, these are the first in vitro systems for any member of the hAT family and indeed, virtually the first in vitro systems for non-Retroviral Integrase Superfamily members. We have found that the Hermes target joining step occurs by the direct attack of the 3’OH ends of the transposon on the target DNA. This is notable because it has revealed a unity of transposition mechanism between the Retroviral and hAT elements, suggesting that it may be a universal mechanism. We are also investigating the strand breakage steps. Interestingly, previous in vivo experiments suggest that strand breakage occurs by a mechanism similar to that used in V(D)J recombination to assemble the coding regions of the proteins of the immunoglobulin superfamily. We are also exploring how the gap in the donor DNA left by element excision is repaired, a step that likely uses proteins involved in the Non-Homologous End Joining pathway of DNA Repair which is also used in V(D)J recombination. |
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| Site created & maintained by
Timothy Thate revised on 03/26/2003 |