Research Thematics
News
Appel à candidature pour la future direction du GReD
Le GReD lance un appel à candidature pour recruter sa future directrice ou futur directeur, pour une prise de fonction en janvier 2021
A key developmental stage for the targeting of transposable elements by piRNAs.
In few germline cells located at the anterior pole of the Drosophila ovariole, Piwi expression is weakened. This short time of germline development has been called the Piwiless pocket or Pilp (Dufourt et al. 2014).
In its last sudy, pubilshed in NAR (Théron et al., ) , the C. Vaury and E. Brasset team evidenced that Pilp is a key developmental stage for amplifying and specifying the piRNA repertoire targeting transposable elements.
TRAINING SCHOOL 3D-FisH & IMAGE ANALYSIS
October 15-19th, 2018
The Probst-Tatout’team organizes a training school in "3D-FiSH and Image Analysis" in the frame of INDEPTH. This first training school will also be supported at the local scale by the University Clermont Auvergne), the Wide Open to the World (WOW!) Program from the CAP20-25 project and by the GReD laboratory through its Confocal Imaging Platform.
Les Mardis du GRed - Octobre 2018
12H45 – 13H45
Faculté de médecine
Amphi Limagne (CRBC RdC)
GH1-HMGA1 : une protéine chromatinienne impliquée dans la stabilité des télomères et la réparation des cassures double brin de l’ADN
De par leur nature linéaire, les chromosomes des eucaryotes ont dû développer des mécanismes de protection de leurs extrémités appelés télomères. Si ces mécanismes sont défaillant, les télomères sont reconnus par la cellule comme des cassures de l’ADN et vont donc être « réparés » de façon abusive et engendrer des dommages génomiques dramatiques pour la cellule. Chez l’homme, l’ADN télomérique est remodelé par un complexe protéique spécifique, qui constituent une « coiffe » qui a pour rôle principal d’assurer la protection du génome. Malgré d’intenses recherches, très peu de protéines impliquées dans l'homéostasie des télomères ont été identifiées chez les plantes.
Dans sa dernière étude (Charbonnel et al.), le groupe de Charles White décrit le rôle de la protéine GH1-HMGA1 dans l’homéostasie télomérique ainsi que dans la réparation de l’ADN chez la plante Arabidopsis thaliana.
DNA methylation : a new actor in CML biology
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a cancer of the white blood cell, results from a translocation event that ultimately leads to the production of BCR-ABL1, a chimeric oncoprotein that promotes CML by aberrantly phosphorylating target proteins. Nonetheless, this event on its own, cannot account for an increasing number of clinical observation suggesting the involvement of other pathways, among which DNA methylation alteration emerges as a relevant candidate.
On that basis the teams of Marc BERGER (CHU, Clermont-Ferrand) and Philippe ARNAUD have characterized for the first time the DNA methylation patterns of CML cell subsets (immature and mature cells) isolated form the same clone during the early stage of the disease, before any treatment (Maupetit-Méhouas, Court, Bourgne et al.,). Altogether, this collaborative study demonstrated that DNA methylation abnormalities exist at early stages of CML and can affect the transcriptional landscape of malignant cells. These observations paved the way for new therapeutic strategies based on epigenetic drugs.
GENOME PLASTICITY: EXAMPLE OF 5S RIBOSOMAL RNA GENES
The genes coding 5S ribosomal RNAs (critical components of the ribosomes, the cellular machineries translating mRNA into proteins) are highly repeated in the genome, which allows the production of large quantities of these rRNAs.
In their last study (Simon et al., 2018), the team of Aline Probst and Christophe Tatout revealed an important variation in number and expression of 5S rRNA genes between different ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana.
Cymbopogon citratus and cancer: when citronella is a repellent not only for mosquitoes…
Through a real bilateral collaboration, Drs. Silvère BARON’s et and Jean-Marc LOBACCARO’s team Nuclear Receptor and Prostate diseases and Pr. Jacques SIMPORE’s team (Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et de Génétique, Université de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), have identified medicinal plants of the Burkina Faso pharmacopeia that could be used in the future in cancer treatment (Bayala et al., 2018).
Recombination machinery compensates telomere loss in the absence of telomerase.
The chromosomes of most eukaryotic species are linear, consisting of a single DNA double-helix running from one end to the other. Each chromosome thus has two ends and these are protected by specialized DNA-protein structures named telomeres. The importance of telomere structure is readily observed in the severe genetic instability and cell death that result from its absence.
In its last study ( Olivier et al., 2018), the team of Charles White and Maria Gallego unveiled mechanisms by which recombination machinery contributes to protect the telomeres from replicative failure, ensuring their stability.
How to turn a football into a rugby ball?
Tissue elongation is part of the repertoire of processes that allow an organ to acquire its shape (morphogenesis). In the last years, the elongation of the ovarian follicle of Drosophila has emerged as a model of choice for the study of tissue elongation mechanisms. During its development the initially spherical follicle becomes ovoid and this elongation is controlled by the epithelial cells surrounding each follicle. However, so far, all studies on the subject have focused on the basal domain of these cells.
In its last study (Alegot et al.,) , the group of Vincent Mirouse has shown that the apical domain of the epithelial cells also contributed to this elongation.
In a few words...
The GReD is a Research Center at Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne Rhône Alpes region of France. Created in 2008, the GReD is supported by the University Clermont Auvergne (UCA), the CNRS (UMR6293) and the INSERM (U1103). The center is composed of 14 research groups (totalling 147 people in December 2017) based at the Centre de Recherche Bio-Clinique (CRBC) on the campus ...
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