Individual Listing

BOYCE HALL
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521

Martinez, Ernest

Associate Professor

College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Biochemistry


Biography

Research Specialization - My research interest is in the characterization of the factors and molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of gene transcription by RNA polymerase II, with emphasis on the transcriptional control of mammalian cell proliferation, and differentiation. Research in the lab currently focuses on 3 interrelated projects (see below and Fig.1): (i) Structure, function, and regulation of the human STAGA complex, a chromatin-modifying coactivator complex. (ii) Transcription regulation by the oncoproteins and cell cycle regulators c-Myc and E2F1. (iii) Role of chromatin structure, TAFIIs, and novel cofactors in core promoter selectivity. A combination of cellular, molecular biological and biochemical techniques are used, including the reconstitution of transcription regulatory processes in vitro with purified native and recombinant factors and chromatin-assembled physiological target genes.

Degrees

PhD Biochemistry & Molecular Biology 1989

University of Lausanne (Switzerland)

Awards

PostDoctoral Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation, The Rockefeller University, 1990-1992
PostDoctoral Associate, The Rockefeller University, 1992-1995
Biomedical Research Fellow of The Charles Revson & Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation, The Rockefeller University, 1995-1996
Research Associate, The Rockefeller University, 1996-2000


Research Area

My research interest is in the characterization of the factors and molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of mammalian gene transcription during cell growth, differentiation and cellular transformation. Emphasis is on the study of genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II that are regulated by transcription factors implicated in the control of cell cycle progression and cellular transformation (e.g. E2F-1 and c-Myc). Important issues are the identification and structural/functional characterization of the cofactors (i.e. co-activators and co-repressors, which are often large multiprotein complexes) that associate with oncoproteins to mediate their transcription regulatory functions on target genes. Interestingly, multiprotein transcription cofactor complexes that remodel chromatin structure might also be used in other nuclear processes such as DNA repair, replication and/or recombination. My research currently focuses on 3 interrelated projects : (i) the structure, function, and regulation of a human co-activator complex (STAGA) that interacts with E2F-1 and c-Myc as well as with splicing and DNA repair factors and modifies chromatin structure by acetylation of histone H3; (ii) transcription regulation by the oncoproteins and cell cycle regulators c-Myc and E2F-1; and (iii) the role of chromatin structure, TAFIIs, and novel co-factors in gene-selective transcription regulation. A combination of cellular, molecular biological and biochemical techniques are used, including the reconstitution of transcription regulatory processes in vitro with purified native and recombinant factors and chromatin-assembled physiological target genes.

Publications

1. Martinez, E., Lagna, G. and Roeder, R.G. (1994) Overlapping transcription by RNA polymerases II and III of the Xenopus TFIIIA gene in somatic cells. J. Biol. Chem., 269, 25692-25698.

2. Martinez, E., Chiang, C.-M., Ge, H. and Roeder, R.G. (1994) TATA-binding protein-associated factor(s) in TFIID function through the initiator to direct basal transcription from a TATA-less class II promoter. EMBO J., 13, 3115-3126.

3. Martinez, E., Zhou, Q., L'Etoile, N., Oelgeschläger, T., Berk, A.J. and Roeder, R.G. (1995) Core promoter-specific function of a mutant transcription factor TFIID defective in TATA box-binding. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 92, 11864-11868.

4. Martinez, E., Ge, H., Tao, Y., Yuan, C.-X., Palhan, V. and Roeder, R.G. (1998) Novel cofactors and TFIIA mediate functional core promoter selectivity by the human TAFII150-containing TFIID complex. Mol. Cell. Biol., 18, 6571-6583.

5. Martinez, E., Kundu, T.K., Fu, J. and Roeder, R.G. (1998) A human SPT3-TAFII31-GCN5-L acetylase complex distinct from TFIID. J. Biol. Chem., 273, 23781-23785.