Nogales Lab
Research Interest
Our lab is involved in the structural characterization of complex biological assemblies, their architecture, conformational flexibility, and their interactions with ligands and cellular partners. One major area of interest is the structural basis of cytoskeletal self-assembly and regulation during cell division. We are also studying the architecture, dynamics and complex interactions of a number of large molecular machines involved in nucleic acid transactions. We use electron microscopy, image analysis, and functional biochemical and biophysical assays, with the final aim of a mechanistic understanding of the regulated function of these complex macromolecular systems.
Among our studies of Cytoskeletal Self-Assembly in Cell Division are:
- The Structural Basis of Microtubule Dynamic Instability
- The characterization of the Microtubule-Kinetochore Interface
and - Defining Septins Structure and Assembly
Our Structural Studies of DNA and RNA Transactions include:
- Eukaryotic Transcription Initiation
- Eukaryotic Translation Initiation
- Exosome and RNA Processing
- Transcription-coupled DNA Repair
and - Eukaryotic DNA Replication: Origin Recognition Complex (ORC)
Selected Publications
Alushin, G., Ramey, V.H., Pasqualato, S., Ball, D., Grigorieff, N., Musacchio, A. and Nogales, E. (2010) Visualization of sleeves of the NDC80 complex on microtubules. Nature, in press.
Wang, H-W., Noland, C., Siridechadilok, B., Ma, E., Felderer, K., MacRae, I.J., Doudna, J.A. and Nogales, E. (2009) Structural insights into RNA Processing by the Human RISC-Loading Complex. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 16, 1148-1153.
Liu, W-L., Coleman, R.A., Grob, P., Geles, K.G., King, D.S., Ramey, V.H., Nogales, E. and Tjian, R. (2008) Structural changes in TAF4b-TFIID correlated with promoter selectivity. Mol. Cell 29, 81-91.
Bertin, A., McMurray, M.A., Grob, P., Park, S-S., Garcia, G. III, Patanwala, I., Ng, H-L., Alber, T.C., Thorner, J. and Nogales, E. (2008) Saccharomyces cerevisiae septins: Supramolecular organization of hetero-oligomers and the mechanism of filament assembly. PNAS 105, 8274-8279.
Wang, H-W, Wang, J., Ding, F., Callahan, K., Bulter, J.S., Nogales, E., Ke, A. (2007) Architecture of the yeast Rrp44-exosome complex suggests routes of RNA recruitment for 3'-end processing. PNAS 104, 16844-9.
Wang, H-W., Ramey, V.H., Westermann, S., Leschziner, A.E., Welburn, J.P.I., Nakajima, Y., Drubin, D.G., Barnes, G. and Nogales, E. (2007) Architecture of the Dam1 kinetochore ring complex: implications for microtubule-driven assembly and force-coupling mechanisms. Nat Struct Mol Biol., 14, 721-726.
Leschziner, A.E., Saha, A., Wittmeyer, J., Zhang, Y., Bustamante, C., Cairns, B.R. and Nogales, E. (2007) Conformational flexibility in the chromatin remodeler RSC observed by electron microscopy and the orthogonal tilt reconstruction method. PNAS, 104, 4913-4918.
Clarey, M.G., Erzberger, J.P., Grob, P., Leschziner, A.E., Berger, J.M., Nogales, E. and Botchan, M. (2006) Nucleotide-dependent conformational changes in the DnaA-like core of the origin recognition complex. Nat Struct Mol Biol., 13, 684-690.
Westermann, S., Wang, H-W., Avila-Sakar, A., Drubin, D.G., Nogales, E. and Barnes, G. (2006) The Dam1 kinetochore ring complex moves processively on depolymerizing microtubule ends. Nature, 440, 565-569.
Siridechadilok, B., Fraser, C.S., Hall, R.J., Doudna, J.A. and Nogales, E. (2005) Structural roles for human translation factor eIF3 in the initiation of protein synthesis. Science, 310, 1513-1515.
Wang, H-W. and Nogales, E. (2005) The nucleotide-dependent bending flexibility of tubulin regulates microtubule assembly. Nature, 435, 911-915.
For a full publication listing please visit http://cryoem.berkeley.edu/pubs.shtml
