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Stephanie Boue

Publications and source records attributed to Stephanie Boue.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Direct membrane protein-DNA interactions required early in nuclear envelope assembly.

Among the earliest events in postmitotic nuclear envelope (NE) assembly are the interactions between chromatin and the membranes that will fuse to form the NE. It has been proposed that interactions between integral NE proteins and chromatin proteins mediate initial membrane recruitment to chromatin. We show that several transmembrane NE proteins bind to DNA directly and that NE membrane proteins as a class are enriched in long, basic domains that potentially bind DNA. Membrane fractions that are essential for NE formation are shown to bind directly to protein-free DNA, and our data suggest that these interactions are critical for early steps in NE assembly.

Animals↗

Similar gene expression profiles do not imply similar tissue functions.

Although similarities in gene expression among tissues are commonly inferred to reflect functional constraints, this has never been formally tested. Furthermore, it is unclear which evolutionary processes are responsible for the observed similarities. When examining genome-wide expression data in mouse, we found that patterns of expression similarity between tissues extend to genes that are unlikely to function in the tissues. Thus, ectopic expression can seem coordinated across tissues. This indicates that knowledge of gene expression patterns per se is insufficient to infer gene function. Ectopic expression is possibly explained as expression leakage, caused by spreading of chromatin modifications or the transcription apparatus into neighboring genes.

Animals↗

Alternative splicing and evolution.

Alternative splicing is a critical post-transcriptional event leading to an increase in the transcriptome diversity. Recent bioinformatics studies revealed a high frequency of alternative splicing. Although the extent of AS conservation among mammals is still being discussed, it has been argued that major forms of alternatively spliced transcripts are much better conserved than minor forms. It suggests that alternative splicing plays a major role in genome evolution allowing new exons to evolve with less constraint.

Alternative Splicing↗