Wolfgang Hennig
 
 

Present members of the Group:

Wu Xioamo, assistent
Yan Xin, assistent
 

Visiting students (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz):

     Carsten Kilgus, Diplomand

     Christian Lechner, Praktikant

 
 

RESEARCH INTEREST:
 
 

Our research interest is focused on questions relating to chromosome structure and function. At present the following topics are addressed in the laboratory:
 

We investigate the temporal and cell-specific changes in the expression of the transcription factor E2f. This protein has important regulatory during cell cycle progression and DNA replication. A mutant cause by the insertion of a P element into the E2f gene sheds new light on the tasks of E2f. RNAi studies have revealed epigenetic effects in the E2f transcription. The contribution of small RNA molecules to the regultion of epigenetic phenomena is under investigation

This part of our work is related to earlier studies in my laboratory on Drosophila spermatogenesis. The molecular events leading to the differentiation of a spermatozoon, in particular at the level of the chromatin structure, are almost entirely unknown. In the course of our work, which has, for example, included the discovery of new myosin heavy chain forms in testes, we have become particularly interested in the Y chromosomal fertility genes displaying unusual functional and structural properties. This work has led to the discovery of two new transcription factor-like proteins (RHADA and TZF) which are chromatin constituents in the germ line.

In cooperation with the Group of Dr. Xu Guoliang (Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, CAS/China) we have studied the DNA methylation and shown that it is not of significance in the male germ line of Drosophila.

The study of histone modifications in the male germ shows germ line specific modification patterns. 
 

In this project we try to identify genes involved in spermatogenesis which are conserved from Drosophila to man. From a series of genes identified in database searches we investigate a selected set of genes, in particular those with a nuclear location of their gene products. The future work will be directed towards targetted mutation of these genes in Drosophila to obtain insight into the function in spermatogenesis. Recently, a microarray screen has beed carried out leading to the identification of genes preferntially or solely expressed in the male germ line of Drosophila.


 

Publications:

A publication summarizing various aspects of the work of my laboratory:

Hennig W: Spermatogenesis in Drosophila. Eur J Cell Biology 40:167-176 (1996)
 
 

Recent papers:

Akhmanova A, Miedema K, Wang Y, van Bruggen M, Berden JH, Moudrianakis EN, Hennig W The localization of histone H3.3 in germ line chromatin of Drosophila males as established with a histone H3.3-specific antiserum. Chromosoma 106:335-347 (1997)

Akhmanova A, Hennig W: A Drosophila melanogaster histone H2B retropseudogene is inserted into a region rich in transposable elements. Genome 41:396-401(1998)

Hennig W: Heterochromatin. Chromosoma 108:1-9 (1999) (Review)

Hennig W: The Revolution of the Biology of the Genome. Cell Research 2003 (click here to download) 

 

(The background of these pages is a part of a "Miller spread" of a Y chromosomal gene of Drosophila. Growing transcripts are visualized with the aid of the electron microscope in my laboratory by Ingrid Siegmund and Wolfgang Hennig)
 
 
 

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