Vol 1 - Support Services Ufs Ac Za - University of the Free State

Prof Patterton is also involved with the microarrayanalysis of the whole-genome expression profilein chickens in response to Avibacterium paragalinariuminfection, toget her with Prof Rob Bragg.Prof Koos Albertyn’s team is investigating wholegenome-se quenc ing and annotation of Avibacteriumpara gali na rium as the basis for NAD independence,as well as the development of novel expressionsystems for Yurowia lypolytica. A project on wholegenome sequencing of Thermus ther mo philus andthe identification of genes encoding novel enzymaticactivities is being led by Prof Derek Litthauer.A further four projects are underway under theleadership of Prof Patterton: (i) the identification ofthe molecular switch allowing chromatin binding oflinker histone H1; (ii) the characterisation of posttranslational mo difi cations of core histones associatedwith early events in chromatin decondensation dur ingextensive transcrip tional reprogramming; (iii) thedelineation of the role of core histone tails in chromatincompaction and gene repres sion; and (iv) a massspectrometricanalysis of protein cross-links: applicationto nucleosome-nucleosome contacts in thecondensed 30nm chromatin fibre.42