主要科研领域与方向

我们实验室有两个主要研究方向：染色质生物学(chromatin biology)和细胞分裂(Cell division)。 真核细胞的DNA缠绕组蛋白，形成核小体(nucleosome)，并进一步组装成染色质 (chromatin)，储存在细胞核中。染色质形成对基因组起保护作用。然而，染色质同时妨碍细胞在需要的时候读取这些遗传信息。真核细胞进化出一系列染色质调控因子，它们有的对核小体进行化学修饰 （如乙酰化），有的移动核小体的空间位置，有的交换组蛋白变体，有的甚至拆分核小体。我们实验室利用多种生物物理和生物化学手段研究这些染色质调控因子的结构、工作机理以及生物学功能。

真核细胞分裂时，微管(microtubule)细胞骨架体系发出信号，使细胞在正确的时间和正确的地点形成收缩环(contractile ring), 驱动细胞膜内陷，从而把染色体平均分配到两个子细胞中。我们实验室研究这条从微管到收缩环，调控细胞分裂面位置的关键信号通路的分子机理。

代表性论文：

1.        Liu X^#, Li M^#, Xia X^#, Li X*., Chen Z*. Mechanism of chromatin remodeling revealed by the Snf2-nucleosome structure. Nature (2017, In press)

2.        Guan R, Zhang L, Su Q P, Mickolajczyk KJ, Chen GY, Hancock WO, Sun Y. Zhao Y, Chen Z* Crystal structure of Zen4 in the apo state reveals a missing conformation of kinesin. Nature Communication (2017, In press)

3.        Yan L^#, Wang L^#, Tian Y, Xia X, Chen Z*. Structure and regulation of the chromatin remodeler ISWI. Nature 540(7633):466-469, 2016

4.        Qin Y, Tan C, Lin, J, Qin Q, He J, Wu, Q, Cai Y, Chen Z*, Dai J*. EcoExpress – a highly efficient construction and expression of multicomponent protein complexes in Escherichia coli. ACS Synth Biol. 5(11):1239-1246, 2016

5.        Xu P^#, Li C^#, Chen Z, Jiang S, Fan S, Wang J, Dai J, Zhu P*, Chen Z* The NuA4 core complex acetylates nucleosomal histone H4 through a double recognition mechanism. Mol. Cell. 63 (6):965-75, 2016

6.        Cao T, Sun L, Jiang Y, Huang S, Wang J, Chen Z*. Crystal structure of a nuclear actin ternary complex. PNAS.113(32): 8985-90, 2016

7.        Xia X^#, Liu X^#, Li T, Fang, X, Chen Z*. Structure of chromatin remodeler Swi2/Snf2 in the resting state. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 23(8):722-9, 2016

8.        Xu X, Lin A, Zhou C, Blackwell SR, Zhang Y, Wang Z, Feng Q, Guan R, Hanna MD, Chen Z*, Xiao W*. Involvement of budding yeast Rad5 in translesion DNA synthesis through physical interaction with Rev1. Nucleic Acids Res. 44(11): 5231-45, 2016

9.        Mi N, Chen Y, Wang S, Chen M, Zhao M, Yang G, Ma M, Su Q, Luo S, Shi J, Xu J, Guo Q, Gao N, Sun Y, Chen Z*, Yu L*. CapZ regulates autophagosomal membrane shaping by promoting actin assembly inside the isolation membrane. Nat Cell Biol. 17(9):1112-23, 2015

10.    Sun L, Guan R, Lee IJ, Liu Y, Chen M, Wang J, Wu JQ, Chen Z*. Mechanistic insights into the anchorage of the contractile ring by anillin and Mid1. Dev Cell. 33(4):413-26, 2015

11.    Chen B, Brinkmann K, Chen Z, Pak CW, Liao Y, Shi S, Henry L, Grishin NV, Bogdan S, Rosen MK The WAVE Regulatory Complex Links Diverse Receptors to the Actin Cytoskeleton Cell. 156(1-2):195-207, 2014

12.    Zahm JA, Padrick SB, Chen Z, Pak CW, Yunus AA, Henry L, Tomchick DR, Chen Z, Rosen MK The bacterial effector VopL organizes actin into filament-like structures Cell. 155(2):423-34, 2013