30 April 2021
Geeta Narlikar
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
UCSF
Our group is interested in understanding the biophysical mechanisms underlying chromatin regulation. Towards this goal we study how chromatin remodeling machines work and how heterochromatin functions. In my virtual chalk talk I will discuss the broader implications of two sets of findings, one in each of these two areas. In the context of chromatin remodeling, I will discuss implications of our discovery that INO80, a conserved remodeling machine shows a substantial preference for sliding subnucleosomal particles over complete nucleosomes. In the context of heterochromatin, I will discuss implications of finding that a pool of weakly bound heterochromatin proteins can produce phase-separated domains that are simultaneously resistant to large forces and susceptible to competition by other molecules.