Ambro van Hoof, Ph.D.
1997, Michigan State University
UT-Houston Medical School
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
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Ambro van Hoof, Ph.D. 1997, Michigan State University UT-Houston Medical School |
Research Interests: Post-transcriptional regulation of eukaryotic gene expression; mRNA degradation; RNA processing; viral RNA genome metabolism
The research in my laboratory is directed at understanding post-transcriptional mechanisms regulating gene expression. The main focus within this area is on the degradation of mRNA. mRNA degradation plays several important roles. First, mRNA degradation is an essential part of the normal expression of genes. Second, defective mRNAs are recognized by the cell and rapidly degraded in a process termed mRNA surveillance. Finally, the mRNA degrading machinery plays a poorly characterized role in keeping RNA viruses under control. Since the mRNA degrading machinery appears to be conserved in all eukaryotes, my lab studies these processes in the easily manipulated yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
A tutorial in my laboratory would expose a student to a wide
variety of molecular biological, genetic and biochemical techniques. For example,
basic cloning, analysis of RNA by northern blotting, screening for and characterizing
yeast mutants, or analysis of proteins and their interactions.
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Meaux S, van Hoof A (2006) Yeast transcripts cleaved by an internal ribozyme provide new insight into the role of the cap and poly(A) tail in translation and mRNA decay. RNA 12:1323-1337.
Wilson M, Meaux S, Parker R, van Hoof A (2005) Genetic interactions between [PSI+] and nonstop mRNA decay affect phenotypic variation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102:10244-10249.
van Hoof A (2005) Conserved functions of yeast genes support the Duplication, Degeneration and Complementation model for gene duplication. Genetics 171:1455-1461.
van Hoof A, Parker R (2002) Messenger RNA degradation; beginning at the end. Curr Biol 12:R285-287.
van Hoof A, Frischmeyer PA, Dietz HC, Parker R (2002) Exosome-mediated recognition and degradation of mRNAs lacking a termination codon. Science 295:2262-2264.
Frischmeyer PA, van Hoof A, O'Donnell K, Guerrerio AL, Parker R, Dietz HC (2002) An mRNA surveillance mechanism that eliminates transcripts lacking termination codons. Science 295:2258-2261.
van Hoof A, Staples RR, Baker RE, Parker (2000) Function of the Ski4p (Cs14p) and Ski7p proteins in 3'-to-5' degradation of mRNA. Mol Cell Biol 20:8230-8243.
van Hoof A, Parker R (1999) The exosome: a proteasome for RNA? Cell 99:347-350.
Program Affiliation:
Program in Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology
Program in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics