Meiotic matchmaking: How do chromosomes recognize their homologs?
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Watch our on-demand Digital Epigenetics Talk held on February 22, 2021
Webinar objectives
- Describe the fundamental roles of chromosome pairing, synapsis, and recombination in sexual reproduction.
- Recognize the impact of these processes on genome structure and evolution
- Understand the power of current sequencing-based technologies to reveal tissue- and stage-specific chromosome architecture
Presenter
Professor Abby Dernberg (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Abby Dernburg is a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
She earned her undergraduate from UC Berkeley before completing a Ph.D. at UCSF developing the wide-field deconvolution microscopy approach that became DeltaVision alongside Dr. John Sedat, Dr. David Agard, and their colleagues. During her graduate work, Professor Dernburg established in situ hybridization methods and applied them to study interphase chromosome organization, focusing on position-effect variegation in Drosophila.
Her lab first elucidated the molecular basis for chromosome “Pairing Centers,” specialized sites important for homolog pairing, synapsis, and checkpoint signaling during meiosis in C. elegans. Their ongoing studies address the regulation of the meiotic cell cycle and the molecular basis for genetic interference.
