Karolin Luger (CU Boulder, HHMI): Discovery of the Structure of the Nucleosome

Dr. Karolin Luger shares the story of discovering the three-dimensional structure of the nucleosome using X-ray crystallography.

ibiology.org/genetics-and-gene-regulation/nucleosome-structu… Dr. Karolin Luger shares her discovery of the 3D structure of the nucleosome. The nucleosome is the central organizing structure of the eukaryotic genome. It consists of DNA wrapped around histone proteins. Dr. Karolin Luger shares her discovery of the three-dimensional structure of the nucleosome using X-ray crystallography, which provided a deeper understanding of chromatin organization. Speaker Biography: Karolin Luger earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology and her master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Innsbruck. She completed her PhD in biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Basel. In 1997, she published the first high-resolution 3D structure of the nucleosome, determined using X-ray crystallography. The Luger Lab uses structural biology to understand the impact of chromatin architecture on fundamental genome-related processes. lugerlab.org 0:00 Intro 0:34 Complex organisms call for complex genomes 1:10 Large genomes pose many challenges 1:52 Early views of genome packaging: the nucleosome 2:41 X-ray crystallography: the method of choice for structure determination in the 20th century 4:17 ‘High resolution’ is needed to understand function 5:52 Resolution is determined by order 6:47 ‘Natural’ nucleosomes are heterogenous 7:49 1984: 7 Ångstrom structure of the nucleosome 8:55 The path toward higher resolution 9:55 Recombinant nucleosomes 11:28 Two steps forward, three steps back 14:03 What is going on? DNA position on the histones is not uniform 16:20 Structural biology is an endurance sport 17:22 Data collection at 3rd-generation synchrotrons 17:55 The Results Credits: Brittany Anderton (iBiology): Producer Eric Kornblum (iBiology): Editor, Videographer