Back to Pharmacology Faculty 
 

Marc Gartenberg, Ph.D.
Professor
Director, Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology 
Department of Pharmacology 
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School 

Office :683 Hoes Lane, Rm 284 Piscataway, NJ 08854 
Telephone: (732) 235-5800 
FAX: (732) 235-4780 
E-mail: gartenbe@umdnj.edu 

Research Description
Recent Publications
Lab Staff

Research Description:
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Transcriptional silencing, heterochromatin, sister chromatid cohesion, yeast molecular biology

Research Interests 
Large regions of eukaryotic chromosomes are transcriptionally repressed due to packaging of DNA in heterochromatin, a structure that is heritably propagated from one mitotic cycle to the next. Other chromosomal regions are transcriptionally active for brief periods during development and then repressed permanently. Because inappropriate expression of down-regulated genes often leads to cancers and other genetic diseases, we are interested in how large chromosomal domains are transcriptionally inactivated. In yeast, a heterochromatin-like structure, termed silent chromatin, represses genes at telomeres and the silent mating loci. In both cases, repression requires cis-acting regulatory sequences and a set of non-histone chromatin components. We are studying silent chromatin to determine how heterochromatic repression is established, maintained, and ultimately propagated from one generation to the next.

Aneuploidy resulting from chromosomal segregation errors is either a direct cause of or tightly associated with many birth defects and cancers (eg. Down’s Syndrome). Sister chromatid cohesion (SCC) is a cellular process that guards against segregation errors by holding newly replicated chromosome pairs together until they can be mounted properly onto the mitotic spindle. A chromatin-bound protein complex known as cohesin mediates SCC. Failure to disassemble the complex at mitosis results in severe chromosome instability. Recent work in my lab has shown that cohesin is recruited specifically to sites that are transcriptionally repressed by budding yeast. We are focused on the mechanistic aspects and biological significance of how SCC is established and maintained at yeast silent chromatin regions.
 

Selected Publications
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Chang, C.-R., Wu, C.-S., Hom, Y., and Gartenberg, M. R. (2005). Targeting and maintenance of cohesin at transcriptionally silent chromatin. Genes Dev 19, 3031-3042.

Gasser, S. M., Hediger, F., Taddei, A., Neumann, F. N., and Gartenberg, M. R. (2004). The function of telomere clustering in yeast: The Circe Effect. In Epigenetics, Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, vol. 69. eds. B. Stillman and D. Stewart. New York, Cold Spring Harbor laboratory Press, 327-338.

Gartenberg, M.R.,* Neumann, F. N., Laroche, T., Blaszczyk, M., and Gasser, S.M. (2004). Sir-mediated repression can occur independently of chromosomal and subnuclear contexts. Cell 119, 955-967.

Andrulis, E.A., Zappulla, D.C., Ansari, A.I., Perrod, S., Laiosa, C.V., Gartenberg, M.R.,* and Sternglanz, R.* (2002). Esc1, a nuclear periphery protein required for Sir4-based plasmid anchoring and partitioning. Mol. Cell. Biol. 22, 8292-8301., *Cocorresponding Authors

Li, Y.-C., Cheng, T.-H., and Gartenberg, M.R. (2001). Establishment of transcriptional silencing in the absence of DNA replication. Science 291, 650-653.

Gartenberg, M.R. (2000). The Sir proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: mediators of transcriptional silencing and much more. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 3, 132-137.

Cheng, T.-H. and Gartenberg, M. R. (2000). Yeast heterochromatin is a dynamic structure that requires silencers continuously. Genes Dev. 14, 452-463.

Ansari, A. and Gartenberg, M. R. (1999). Persistence of silent chromatin structure in vitro. Proc. Nat’l. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 343-348.

Cheng, T.-H., Li, Y.-C., and Gartenberg, M. R. (1998). Persistence of an alternate chromatin structure at silenced loci in the absence of silencers. Proc. Nat’l. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 5521-5526.

Lab Staff

Rudra Dubey

Research Teaching Specialist

Ching-shyi Wu

Graduate Student

Chia-ching Chou

Graduate Student

Jenel Nixon

Graduate Student

John Campor

Graduate Student

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