BMCB-Faculty Research, Giovanni Bosco

Assistant Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Ph.D., Brandeis University

Developmental regulation of the cell cycle; DNA replication; Drosophila as a cancer model.

Research Interests

The Questions we care about:
We are interested in understanding how nuclear architecture, chromosome morphology and chromatin structure are modified in response to developmental cues. We are also interested in elucidating the molecular mechanisms through which these modifications function and effect specialized cellular processes. The types of processes that we study are:

(1) the formation of chromosome territories and polytene chromosomes.
(2) chromosome condensation.
(3) homology dependent pairing of chromosomes in meiosis and somatic interphase cells.
(4) pairing sensitive gene expression, e.g. transvection.
(5) chromosome and chromatin structure and epigenetic gene regulation.
(6) heterochromatin satellite DNA and genome evolution.

Our favorite model:
We primarily work with Drosophila as a model system because it s amenable to powerfulgenetic/genomic analysis and cell biological techniques. In addition, the rich history and knowledge derived from previous studies of Drosophila chromosomes, combined with modern genetic/genomic and imaging technologies affords us the ability to dissect and visualize a variety of dynamic chromosome structures.

Our goal:
Our goal is to understanding the basic rules of how the structure of chromosomes and chromatin are regulated in the Drosophila system. As we better understand how changes in these structures effect their function it will lead to insights that are fundamental to many critical cellular processes, such as chromosome segregation and genome stability, gene expression and epigenetic gene regulation.

Select Publications

Any link on the below references will take you off of the BMCB site and to an abstract of that particular paper.

Claycomb, J.M., M. Benasutti, G. Bosco, D.D. Fenger, and T.L. Orr-Weaver. 2004. Gene amplification as a developmental strategy: isolation of two developmental amplicons in Drosophila. Developmental Cell 6: 145-155.

Royzman, I., A. Hayashi-Hagihara, K.J. Dej, G. Bosco, J.Y. Lee, and T.L. Orr-Weaver. 2002. The E2F cell cycle regulator is required for Drosophila nurse cell DNA replication and apoptosis. Mechanisms of Development 119: 225-237.

Bosco, G., and T.L. Orr-Weaver. 2002. Cell cycle control during Drosophila oogenesis and early embryogenesis. In: Regulation of Gene Expression at the Beginning of Animal Development (DePamphilis, M.L., Ed.). Elsevier Science.

Bosco, G., W. Du, and T.L. Orr-Weaver. 2001. DNA replication control through interaction of E2F-RB and the Origin Recognition Complex. Nature Cell Biology 3: 289-295.

Lee, L.A., L.K. Elfring, G. Bosco, and T.L. Orr-Weaver. 2001. A genetic screen for suppressors and enhancers of the PAN GU cell cycle kinase identifies Cyclin B as a critical target . Genetics 158: 1545-1556.

Orr-Weaver, T.L., I. Royzman, and G. Bosco. 2000. Regulation of replication initiation during the development of Drosophila. In: Cell Division and the Replicon (Fangman, W., T. Kashimoto, M. Kohiyama, and C. Coath, Eds.). Human Frontier Sciences Program, Workshop IX, 112-120.

Royzman, I., R.J. Austin, G. Bosco, S.P. Bell, and T.L. Orr-Weaver. 1999. ORC localization in Drosophila follicle cells and the effects of mutations in dE2F and dDP. Genes and Development 13: 827-840.

Bosco, G., and J.E. Haber. 1998. Chromosome break induced DNA replication leads to non-reciprocal translocations and telomere capture. Genetics 150: 1037-1047.

Contact Information

Mailing:
Giovanni Bosco, Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
University of Arizona
Life Sciences South 525
P. O. Box 210106
Tucson, AZ 85721-0106

Telephone:
520-626-1401 (Office)
520-626-1235 (Lab)

Fax:
520-621-3709

Email:
gbosco@email.arizona.edu

Please e-mail any comments to:
bmcb@email.arizona.edu