Todd R. Riley, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral
       Researcher

Columbia University

Bussemaker Lab

 

Intro

Research

  - SELEX-seq

  - Latent Specificity

  - FeatureREDUCE

  - p53HMM

Publications

Contact Info

CV

 

 

bussmaker
laboratory

 

Latent Specificity

Using our highly accurate SELEX-seq method, we discovered that the sequence specificities of the developmental Hox proteins drastically change when they bind in complex with the common cofactor Extradenticle (Exd), as compared to when they bind as monomers - a phenomenon we call "latent specificity" (Slattery, Riley et al., Cell, 2011).

This new finding at least partially solves the "specificity paradox" that currently exists in the field: How can distinct TFs in the same protein family, with known functional and phenotypic differences, regulate different downstream targets when their monomeric specificities are so similar? Other TFs may operate similarly.

Another finding is that the clustering of the binding specificities of the Exd-Hox complexes is consistent with the linear ordering of the Hox genes along the chromosome.

A link to our Cell paper is here.