Kyoko Yokomori
Biological Chemistry, School of Medicine
Phone: (949) 824-8215
Email: kyokomor@uci.edu
http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/biochem/faculty/kyoko.html
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4476
Kyoko Yokomori
Dr. Yokomori’s laboratory is interested in the mechanism of chromosome structural organization important for genomic functions. They focus on the structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) family of proteins, which play critical roles in chromosome structural organization. Two essential SMC-containing multiprotein complexes are “cohesin” and “condensin”, which are required for sister chromatid cohesion and mitotic chromosome organization. Recently, they obtained evidence that human cohesin and condensin have additional non-mitotic functions in DNA repair and gene regulation. Thus, their current focus is to understand the non-mitotic roles of these complexes in human cells. They use different laser microirradiation systems to analyze the in vivo DNA damage recognition processes by these complexes. Furthermore, using chromatin crosslinking and immunoprecipitation analysis, they are characterizing the in vivo binding sites for cohesin and condensin and identify their target genes in mammalian cells. By characterizing the functions of SMC family proteins, Dr. Yokomori hopes to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying chromosome dynamics, which is important in understanding the mechanism of carcinogenesis and diseases caused by chromosome abnormality.
Selected Publications:
Kim, J. S., Krasieva, T. B., LaMorte, V., Taylor, A. M., and Yokomori, K. (2002). Specific recruitment of human cohesin to laser-induced DNA damage. J Biol Chem 277(47), 45149-53.
Kim, J. S., Krasieva, T. B., Kurumizaka, H., Chen, D. J., Taylor, A. M., and Yokomori, K. (2005). Independent and sequential recruitment of NHEJ and HR factors to DNA damage sites in mammalian cells. J Cell Biol 170(3), 341-7.
Heale, J. T., Ball, A. R., Jr., Schmiesing, J. A., Kim, J. S., Kong, X., Zhou, S., Hudson, D. F., Earnshaw, W. C., and Yokomori, K. (2006). Condensin I interacts with the PARP-1-XRCC1 complex and functions in DNA single-strand break repair. Mol Cell 21(6), 837-48.
Kim, J. S., Heale, J. T., Zeng, W., Kong, X., Krasieva, T. B., Ball, A. R., Jr., and Yokomori, K. (2007). In situ analysis of DNA damage response and repair using laser microirradiation. Methods Cell Biol 82, 377-407.
Parelho, V., Hadjur, S., Spivakov, M., Leleu, M., Sauer, S., Gregson, H. C., Jarmuz, A., Canzonetta, C., Webster, Z., Nesterova, T., Cobb, B. S., Yokomori, K., Dillon, N., Aragon, L., Fisher, A. G., and Merkenschlager, M. (2008). Cohesins functionally associate with CTCF on mammalian chromosome arms. Cell 132(3), 422-33. |
