Asifa Akhtar

Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany

X chromosomal regulation

Over the last decade, the focus of the Akhtar laboratory has been to study the chromatin and epigenetic mechanisms underlying X-chromosome specific gene regulation using Drosophila dosage compensation as a model system. In Drosophila, dosage compensation is achieved by hyperactivation of the single X chromosome in males in comparison to the two female X chromosomes. They study how the dosage compensation complex, composed of RNA and proteins (The Male Specific Lethal (MSL) complex) gets targeted to the X chromosome and modulates transcriptional output. They are also interested in studying how nuclear organization influences X-chromosomal regulation.

People involved in the lab:

Thomas Conrad, postdoc
Thomas Lingg, PhD student

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Latest publications

DHX9 suppresses RNA processing defects originating from the Alu invasion of the human genome.

28355180 - 2017-03-30
Nature 2017 Apr 6;544(7648):115-119

Aktaş T, Avşar Ilık İ, Maticzka D, Bhardwaj V, Pessoa Rodrigues C, Mittler G, Manke T, Backofen R, Akhtar A

MOF Acetyl Transferase Regulates Transcription and Respiration in Mitochondria.

27768893 - 2016-10-22
Cell 2016 Oct 20;167(3):722-738.e23

Chatterjee A, Seyfferth J, Lucci J, Gilsbach R, Preissl S, Böttinger L, Mårtensson CU, Panhale A, Stehle T, Kretz O, Sahyoun AH, Avilov S, Eimer S, Hein L, Pfanner N, Becker T, Akhtar A

Functional interplay between MSL1 and CDK7 controls RNA polymerase II Ser5 phosphorylation.

27183194 - 2016-05-18
Nat Struct Mol Biol 2016 May 16;

Chlamydas S, Holz H, Samata M, Chelmicki T, Georgiev P, Pelechano V, Dündar F, Dasmeh P, Mittler G, Cadete FT, Ramírez F, Conrad T, Wei W, Raja S, Manke T, Luscombe NM, Steinmetz LM, Akhtar A

View all their publications