Research in the Gruszka Lab centres on physical and molecular mechanisms underpinning chromatin dynamics during DNA replication. We combine single-molecule imaging, biochemical and biophysical approaches to understand how epigenetic information is maintained in time.
Faithful replication of DNA and maintenance of chromosomes is fundamental to health in eukaryotes. Chromatin is the key organisational unit of chromosomes, in which long DNA sequences are packaged into nucleosomes by histone proteins. Chromatin is partitioned into distinct functional domains that determine cellular identity (i.e., the functional programming of the cell). Nucleosomes carry domain-specific epigenetic labels that modulate chromatin structure and dynamics. For DNA replication to occur, chromatin must be transiently disrupted and reorganised. Nucleosomes are sequentially disassembled ahead of the replication machinery and then reassembled on newly replicated DNA using recycled (parental) and new histones. We use a wide range of approaches to probe chromatin dynamics during DNA replication. In particular, we investigate the effect of domain-specific epigenetic labels on nucleosome dynamics to unravel how the chromatin landscape is maintained.
