Thomas Höfer: "Specificity and efficiency of multiprotein complexes that control genome function"

Thomas Höfer
German Cancer Research Center and Bioquant Center, Heidelberg

Specificity and efficiency of multiprotein complexes that control genome function

Multiprotein machineries in DNA repair and transcription assemble at specific sites from individual components, which is often thought to occur through their sequential incorporation into a stable complex. In contrast to this view, we have observed in living cells that the core components of a DNA repair pathway, nucleotide excision repair, exchange rapidly between the bound state in repair complexes and the freely diffusible state in the nucleoplasm. Iterating between computational analysis and experiments, we have reconstructed the dynamics of the repair complexes. I will argue that the unexpectedly dynamic design of this repair pathway is adapted to functional constraints and discuss implications for other chromatin-associated multiprotein complexes.