Craig Kaplan
professor
Biochemistry and Biophysics
Texas A and M University
United States of America
Biography
Control of gene expression in eukaryotes relies on complex regulatory machinery dedicated to proper transcription by RNA Polymerase II (Pol II). My lab focuses on the mechanism and regulation of Pol II enzymatic activity and how it can impact all three phases of transcription: initiation, elongation, and termination. Appropriate regulation of transcription is critical for cellular and organismal development, and is also essential for the prevention of disease states such as cancer. We study Pol II regulation using the model organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Baker’s yeast). This single-celled organism is amenable to genetic, biochemical, genomic and high-throughput approaches, thus we are able to approach mechanism in vivo and in vitro.
Research Interest
Substrate selection is a key determinant for proper elongation rate and faithful transcription, while molecules that alter or inhibit substrate selection could represent novel classes of anti-fungal or therapeutic drugs
Publications
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Kaplan, CD. Pairs of promoter pairs in a web of transcription. Nat. Genet. 2016;48 (9):975-6. doi: 10.1038/ng.3649. PubMed PMID:27573684. .
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Qiu, C, Erinne, OC, Dave, JM, Cui, P, Jin, H, Muthukrishnan, N et al.. High-Resolution Phenotypic Landscape of the RNA Polymerase II Trigger Loop. PLoS Genet. 2016;12 (11):e1006321. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006321. PubMed PMID:27898685. PubMed Central PMC5127505.
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Malik, I, Qiu, C, Snavely, T, Kaplan, CD. Wide-ranging and unexpected consequences of altered Pol II catalytic activity in vivo. Nucleic Acids Res. 2017;45 (8):4431-4451. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkx037. PubMed PMID:28119420. PubMed Central PMC5416818.
