{"id":1320,"date":"2016-05-04T09:55:43","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T08:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/biosciences\/?p=1320"},"modified":"2016-05-04T09:55:43","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T08:55:43","slug":"research-seminar-beyond-methyl-transfer-sequence-specific-dna-modification-using-the-dna-methyltransferases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/biosciences\/2016\/05\/04\/research-seminar-beyond-methyl-transfer-sequence-specific-dna-modification-using-the-dna-methyltransferases\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Seminar: Beyond methyl-transfer: Sequence-specific DNA modification using the DNA methyltransferases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Robert Neely, School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday 10th May, 1.00 p.m., Stacey Lecture Theatre 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thousands of protein, RNA and DNA methyltransferase enzymes exist in nature and all catalyse the transfer of a methyl-group from the ubiquitous cofactor, S-adenosyl-l-methionine, to their target. These enzymes are proving to be a remarkably malleable1<\/sup>. Their ability to catalyze reactions goes far beyond methyl-transfer and we are now able to use them to catalyse the transfer of much more bulky and useful groups to their target sites on DNA, RNA and proteins.<\/p>\n

Recent work in my lab has focused on the application of the methyltransferases in optical DNA mapping2<\/sup>. Here, we have been using DNA methyltransferases to catalyse the transfer of fluorophores to DNA. The site-specific fluorophore transfer enables us to visualize DNA sequence in a unique way, analogous to a barcode. In this way, we can collect data on thousands of long DNA molecules in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, the data is inherently single molecule, so we derive a quantitative description of the genomic content of a sample.<\/p>\n

I will discuss recent work on exploring the scope and efficiency of the methyltransferase-catalysed labeling reaction and give a brief overview of future direction for this technology.<\/p>\n

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  1. Dalhoff,C., Lukinavicius,G., Klimasauskas,S. and Weinhold,E. (2006). Nat Chem Biol<\/em>, 2<\/strong>, 31\u201332.<\/li>\n
  2. Vranken,C., Deen,J., Dirix,L., Stakenborg,T., Dehaen,W., Leen,V., Hofkens,J. and Neely,R.K. (2014). Nucleic Acids Res.<\/em>, 42<\/strong>, e50\u2013e50.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n