Diana Libuda
University of Oregon, OR·Genetics
Sperm and eggs each carry half of a parent's chromosomes, and getting that split right depends on a controlled shuffling of DNA called recombination. During meiosis, the specialized cell division that makes these cells, the cell deliberately cuts its own DNA and then repairs the breaks.
- Fields
Genetics
Biology
Biochemistry
- Topics
meiosis
meiotic recombination
double-strand break repair
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2028
What they work on
- Test how specific meiotic chromosome structures regulate and respond to repair pathway and partner choice, using in vivo assays in C. elegans that directly detect use of the sister chromatid as a repair template during prophase I.
- Determine how the NSE-2/Mms21 enzyme, which tags proteins with SUMO, controls DNA repair pathway choice and genome stability during egg development in the worm germ line.
- Map the genome-wide recombination landscape and its molecular signatures by whole-genome sequencing, asking how chromosomal context, sex and age shift the number and distribution of crossover and non-crossover events.
- Induce single double-strand DNA breaks at defined genomic positions to test which local chromosome features dictate the repair pathway and repair partner the germ cell uses.
More about the research
The repair has to use the matching chromosome from the other parent as a template, not the nearly identical sister copy sitting right next to it, and it has to produce a crossover, the physical exchange that holds chromosome pairs together until they separate. When this goes wrong the consequences include infertility, miscarriage, birth defects and cancer. How a cell makes these choices in the presence of two almost identical options has been hard to study in animals.
Why it matters
Errors in DNA break repair and chromosome shuffling during sperm and egg development underlie infertility, pregnancy loss, birth defects and some cancers, and crossover placement is known to change with sex and age. Mapping the rules cells use to pick a repair partner and pathway builds the basic understanding needed to interpret these reproductive and genome-stability problems in people.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Anne M Villeneuve
Stanford University, CA·Genetics
Uncover the mechanisms that ensure every chromosome pair forms a crossover, an exchange that links matching chromosomes so they separate correctly, in C. elegans meiosis.
Amy MacQueen
Wesleyan University, CT·Genetics
Define how the N terminus of Zip1, a synaptonemal complex building block, works with the Zip3 SUMO ligase to promote crossover recombination in budding yeast, using structure-function genetic analysis.
Caitlin Smukowski Heil
North Carolina State University, NC·Genetics
Build genome-wide recombination maps for multiple Saccharomyces uvarum populations using whole genome sequencing, and compare how double-strand breaks are repaired as crossovers versus non-crossover gene conversions.
The school
University of Oregon: 14 labs on PI Pages, $175M a year on research, 219 research doctorates a year.
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