Achievement

Learning how chromosomes are arranged in the nucleus and how mobile they are in a crowded environment is essential in understanding how chromosomes interact during repair of chromosome damage and in other aspects of chromosome biology. To accomplish this has required an interdisciplinary approach, combining genetics, molecular biology and biophysics to create and analyze the movement of fluorescently tagged spots located at precise positions on a budding yeast chromosome. Using this approach IGERT-trainee Susannah Gordon-Messer and her dual advisors, Jim Haber (Biiology) and Jane' Kondev (Physics) have examined the movements of the left arm of chromosome III and to analyze the effects of removing proteins that normally tether the chromosome end (telomere) to the nuclear envelope. These data have important implications for understanding how chromosome repair is achieved.