Sevinc Ercan Assistant Professor of Biology Ph.D., Pennsylvania State; B.S., Bilkent University, Turkey. Office Address: New York University Department of Biology Center for Genomics and Systems Biology 12 Waverly Place, Room 605 New York, NY 10003 Email: Phone: (212) 992 9518 Fax: (212) 995-4015 List of Publications from Pubmed List of citations from Google Scholar Lab Homepage

Research

Our goal is to understand how chromatin regulates genome activity. The basic unit of chromatin is a nucleosome, which wraps ~147 bp of DNA around an octamer of histones. Higher levels of chromatin organization involve other proteins such as condensins. Packaging and organization of DNA into chromatin affects all cellular processes that require direct access to the genome. Access is dynamically regulated during the course of development, cell cycle and upon environmental stimuli. We study the structure and function of chromatin in gene expression and chromosome segregation during development. We primarily use C. elegans as a model organism, and perform high-throughput genomic experiments.

1. Gene Expression: In many animals, males and females have different numbers of the X chromosome. This presents a challenge for the genome because X is monosomic in males and X linked gene levels are different between sexes. C. elegans hermaphrodites have two Xes (XX) and males have a single X (XO). We study how X chromosome transcription is regulated during C. elegans development.


2. Chromosome Condensation: Condensins assemble chromosomes for segregation during mitosis and meiosis. Defects in condensins cause aneuploidy and lethality. In many eukaryotes, two types of condensins (I and II) bind to different regions of the genome. Our goal is to determine how different condensins are targeted to their specific sites, and how condensins fold chromosomes.

Areas of Research/Interest

Developmental Genomics, Epigenetics, Chromatin

Publications

An inverse relationship to germline transcription defines centromeric chromatin in C. elegans. Nature   (2012 Apr 26) Gassmann R, Rechtsteiner A, Yuen KW, Muroyama A, Egelhofer T, Gaydos L, Barron F, Maddox P, Essex A, Monen J, Ercan S, Lieb JD, Oegema K, Strome S, Desai A

Evidence for compensatory upregulation of expressed X-linked genes in mammals, Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster. Nat Genet   (2011 Dec) Deng X, Hiatt JB, Nguyen DK, Ercan S, Sturgill D, Hillier LW, Schlesinger F, Davis CA, Reinke VJ, Gingeras TR, Shendure J, Waterston RH, Oliver B, Lieb JD, Disteche CM

Integrative analysis of the Caenorhabditis elegans genome by the modENCODE project. Science   (2010 Dec 24) Gerstein MB, Lu ZJ, Van Nostrand EL, Cheng C, Arshinoff BI, Liu T, Yip KY, Robilotto R, Rechtsteiner A, Ikegami K, Alves P, Chateigner A, Perry M, Morris M, Auerbach RK, Feng X, Leng J, Vielle A, Niu W, Rhrissorrakrai K, Agarwal A, Alexander RP, Barber G, Brdlik CM, Brennan J, Brouillet JJ, Carr A, Cheung MS, Clawson H, Contrino S, Dannenberg LO, Dernburg AF, Desai A, Dick L, Dose AC, Du J, Egelhofer T, Ercan S, Euskirchen G, Ewing B, Feingold EA, Gassmann R, Good PJ, Green P, Gullier F, Gutwein M, Guyer MS, Habegger L, Han T, Henikoff JG, Henz SR, Hinrichs A, Holster H, Hyman T, Iniguez AL, Janette J, Jensen M, Kato M, Kent WJ, Kephart E, Khivansara V, Khurana E, Kim JK, Kolasinska-Zwierz P, Lai EC, Latorre I, Leahey A, Lewis S, Lloyd P, Lochovsky L, Lowdon RF, Lubling Y, Lyne R, MacCoss M, Mackowiak SD, Mangone M, McKay S, Mecenas D, Merrihew G, Miller DM 3rd, Muroyama A, Murray JI, Ooi SL, Pham H, Phippen T, Preston EA, Rajewsky N, Ratsch G, Rosenbaum H, Rozowsky J, Rutherford K, Ruzanov P, Sarov M, Sasidharan R, Sboner A, Scheid P, Segal E, Shin H, Shou C, Slack FJ, Slightam C, Smith R, Spencer WC, Stinson EO, Taing S, Takasaki T, Vafeados D, Voronina K, Wang G, Washington NL, Whittle CM, Wu B, Yan KK, Zeller G, Zha Z, Zhong M, Zhou X, Ahringer J, Strome S, Gunsalus KC, Micklem G, Liu XS, Reinke V, Kim SK, Hillier LW, Henikoff S, Piano F, Snyder M, Stein L, Lieb JD, Waterston RH

High nucleosome occupancy is encoded at X-linked gene promoters in C. elegans. Genome Res   (2011 Feb) Ercan S, Lubling Y, Segal E, Lieb JD

Broad chromosomal domains of histone modification patterns in C. elegans. Genome Res   (2011 Feb) Liu T, Rechtsteiner A, Egelhofer TA, Vielle A, Latorre I, Cheung MS, Ercan S, Ikegami K, Jensen M, Kolasinska-Zwierz P, Rosenbaum H, Shin H, Taing S, Takasaki T, Iniguez AL, Desai A, Dernburg AF, Kimura H, Lieb JD, Ahringer J, Strome S, Liu XS

The histone H3K36 methyltransferase MES-4 acts epigenetically to transmit the memory of germline gene expression to progeny. PLoS Genet   (2010 Sep) Rechtsteiner A, Ercan S, Takasaki T, Phippen TM, Egelhofer TA, Wang W, Kimura H, Lieb JD, Strome S

The C. elegans dosage compensation complex propagates dynamically and independently of X chromosome sequence. Curr Biol   (2009 Nov 17) Ercan S, Dick LL, Lieb JD

C. elegans dosage compensation: a window into mechanisms of domain-scale gene regulation. Chromosome Res   (2009) Ercan S, Lieb JD

The genomic distribution and function of histone variant HTZ-1 during C. elegans embryogenesis. PLoS Genet   (2008) Whittle CM, McClinic KN, Ercan S, Zhang X, Green RD, Kelly WG, Lieb JD

Chromatin proteins do double duty. Cell   (2008 May 30) Ercan S, Lieb JD

X chromosome repression by localization of the C. elegans dosage compensation machinery to sites of transcription initiation. Nat Genet   (2007 Mar) Ercan S, Giresi PG, Whittle CM, Zhang X, Green RD, Lieb JD

New evidence that DNA encodes its packaging. Nat Genet   (2006 Oct) Ercan S, Lieb JD

Yeast recombination enhancer is stimulated by transcription activation. Mol Cell Biol   (2005 Sep) Ercan S, Reese JC, Workman JL, Simpson RT

Global chromatin structure of 45,000 base pairs of chromosome III in a- and alpha-cell yeast and during mating-type switching. Mol Cell Biol   (2004 Nov) Ercan S, Simpson RT

Global nucleosome distribution and the regulation of transcription in yeast. Genome Biol   (2004) Ercan S, Carrozza MJ, Workman JL