Explanipedia

A tribute to 40 years of CENP-A & centromere pioneer Bill Earnshaw Open

Yamini Dalal, Daniël P. Melters, Geneviève Almouzni · 2025

Linker Histone H1.5 Contributes to Centromere Integrity in Human Cells Open

Ankita Saha, Minh Bui, Daniël P. Melters, Ganesan Arunkumar, Songjoon Baek , et al. · 2025

Mammalian H1 linker histones comprise a group of 11 non-allelic variants which have key roles in modulating chromatin. H1 variant specific genomic distribution contributes to fine tuning regulation of gene expression and chromatin architec…

High-resolution analysis of human centromeric chromatin Open

Daniël P. Melters, Minh Bui, Tatini Rakshit, Sergei A. Grigoryev, David Sturgill , et al. · 2025

Centromeres are marked by the centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENP-A/CENH3. Throughout the cell cycle, the constitutive centromere-associated network is bound to CENP-A chromatin, but how this protein network modifies CENP-A nucleos…

Aberrant expression of histone H2B variants reshape chromatin and alter oncogenic gene expression programs Open

Wesley N. Saintilnord, Youssef A. Hegazy, Kristin V Chesnutt, Meredith Eckstein, Richard N Cassidy , et al. · 2024

Chromatin architecture governs DNA accessibility and gene expression. Thus, any perturbations to chromatin can significantly alter gene expression programs and promote disease. Prior studies demonstrate that every amino acid in a histone i…

Native and tagged CENP-A histones are functionally inequivalent Open

Minh Bui, Songjoon Baek, Reda S. Bentahar, Daniël P. Melters, Yamini Dalal · 2024

Background Over the past several decades, the use of biochemical and fluorescent tags has elucidated mechanistic and cytological processes that would otherwise be impossible. The challenging nature of certain nuclear proteins includes low …

Single molecule analysis of CENP-A chromatin by high-speed atomic force microscopy Open

Daniël P. Melters, Keir C. Neuman, Reda S. Bentahar, Tatini Rakshit, Yamini Dalal · 2023

Chromatin accessibility is modulated in a variety of ways to create open and closed chromatin states, both of which are critical for eukaryotic gene regulation. At the single molecule level, how accessibility is regulated of the chromatin …

Author response: Single molecule analysis of CENP-A chromatin by high-speed atomic force microscopy Open

Daniël P. Melters, Keir C. Neuman, Reda S. Bentahar, Tatini Rakshit, Yamini Dalal · 2023

The Force is Strong with This Epigenome: Chromatin Structure and Mechanobiology Open

Chieh-Ren Hsia, Daniël P. Melters, Yamini Dalal · 2023

A hyper-quiescent chromatin state formed during aging is reversed by regeneration Open

Na Yang, James R. Occean, Daniël P. Melters, Changyou Shi, Lin Wang , et al. · 2023

The force is strong with this epigenome: chromatin structure and mechanobiology Open

Chieh-Ren Hsia, Daniël P. Melters, Yamini Dalal · 2023

All life forms sense and respond to mechanical stimuli. Throughout evolution, organisms develop diverse mechanosensing and mechanotransduction pathways, leading to fast and sustained mechanoresponses. Memory and plasticity characteristics …

A hyper-quiescent chromatin state formed during aging is reversed by regeneration Open

Na Yang, James R. Occean, Daniël P. Melters, Changyou Shi, Lin Wang , et al. · 2023

Summary Epigenetic alterations are a key hallmark of aging but have been limitedly explored in tissues. Here, using naturally aged murine liver as a model and extending to other quiescent tissues, we find that aging is driven by temporal c…

EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS OF TISSUE AGING Open

Payel Sen, Na Yang, James Occean, Daniël P. Melters, Changyou Shi , et al. · 2022

Epigenetic alterations are one of the key hallmarks of aging. How epigenetic changes broadly affect euchromatin-heterochromatin balance, three-dimensional chromatin conformation, histone composition and global transcriptome in aging have n…

Breaking the aging epigenetic barrier Open

Sweta Sikder, Ganesan Arunkumar, Daniël P. Melters, Yamini Dalal · 2022

Aging is an inexorable event occurring universally for all organisms characterized by the progressive loss of cell function. However, less is known about the key events occurring inside the nucleus in the process of aging. The advent of ch…

Single Molecule Analysis of CENP-A Chromatin by High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy Open

Daniël P. Melters, Keir C. Neuman, Tatini Rakshit, Yamini Dalal · 2022

Chromatin accessibility is modulated in a variety of ways to create open and closed chromatin states, both of which are critical for eukaryotic gene regulation. At the single molecule level, how accessibility is regulated in the chromatin …

Nano-Surveillance: Tracking Individual Molecules in a Sea of Chromatin Open

Daniël P. Melters, Yamini Dalal · 2020

Centromeric Transcription: A Conserved Swiss-Army Knife Open

Ganesan Arunkumar, Daniël P. Melters · 2020

In most species, the centromere is comprised of repetitive DNA sequences, which rapidly evolve. Paradoxically, centromeres fulfill an essential function during mitosis, as they are the chromosomal sites wherein, through the kinetochore, th…

Job Opening for Nucleosome Mechanic: Flexibility Required Open

Mary Pitman, Daniël P. Melters, Yamini Dalal · 2020

The nucleus has been studied for well over 100 years, and chromatin has been the intense focus of experiments for decades. In this review, we focus on an understudied aspect of chromatin biology, namely the chromatin fiber polymer’s mechan…

Job Opening for Nucleosome Mechanic: Flexibility Required Open

Mary Pitman, Daniël P. Melters, Yamini Dalal · 2020

The nucleus has been studied for well over 100 years, and chromatin has been the intense focus of experiments for decades. In this review, we focus on an understudied aspect of chromatin biology, namely the chromatin fiber polymer's mechan…

A Balance Between Elastic and Rigidified CENP-A Nucleosomes Govern Centromeric Chromatin Fidelity Open

Daniël P. Melters, Mary Pitman, Tatini Rakshit, Emilios K. Dimitriadis, Minh Bui , et al. · 2020

Mechanical properties of nucleoprotein complexes determined by nanoindentation spectroscopy Open

Tatini Rakshit, Daniël P. Melters, Emilios K. Dimitriadis, Yamini Dalal · 2020

The interplay between transcription factors, chromatin remodelers, 3-D organization, and mechanical properties of the chromatin fiber controls genome function in eukaryotes. Besides the canonical histones which fold the bulk of the chromat…

Intrinsic elasticity of nucleosomes is encoded by histone variants and calibrated by their binding partners Open

Daniël P. Melters, Mary Pitman, Tatini Rakshit, Emilios K. Dimitriadis, Minh Bui , et al. · 2019

Histone variants fine-tune transcription, replication, DNA damage repair, and faithful chromosome segregation. Whether and how nucleosome variants encode unique mechanical properties to their cognate chromatin structures remains elusive. H…

The ratio between centromeric proteins CENP-A and CENP-C maintains homeostasis of human centromeres Open

Daniël P. Melters, Tatini Rakshit, Minh Bui, Sergei A. Grigoryev, David Sturgill , et al. · 2019

The centromere is the chromosomal locus that seeds the kinetochore, allowing for a physical connection between the chromosome and the mitotic spindle. At the heart of the centromere is the centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENP-A/CENH…

Intrinsic elasticity of nucleosomes is encoded by histone variants and calibrated by their binding partners Open

Daniël P. Melters, Mary Pitman, Tatini Rakshit, Emilios K. Dimitriadis, Minh Bui , et al. · 2018

Histone variants fine-tune transcription, replication, DNA damage repair, and faithful chromosome segregation. Whether and how nucleosome variants encode unique mechanical properties to their cognate chromatin structures remains elusive. H…

The Art of War: harnessing the epigenome against cancer Open

Jonathan Nye, Daniël P. Melters, Yamini Dalal · 2018

Histone chaperones are indispensable regulators of chromatin structure and function. Recent work has shown that they are frequently mis-regulated in cancer, which can have profound consequences on tumor growth and survival. Here, we focus …

Chromatin Dynamics in Vivo: A Game of Musical Chairs Open

Daniël P. Melters, Jonathan Nye, Haiqing Zhao, Yamini Dalal · 2015

Histones are a major component of chromatin, the nucleoprotein complex fundamental to regulating transcription, facilitating cell division, and maintaining genome integrity in almost all eukaryotes. In addition to canonical, replication-de…

Daniël P. Melters YOU? Author Swipe