Sara T. Winokur
Ph.D., University of California Irvine, 1995
Assistant Researcher
University of California, Irvine
Department of Biological Chemistry
202 Sprague Hall
Irvine, CA 92697
Office: (949) 824-2750
stwinoku@uci.edu
Research Interests:
Our laboratory studies the influence of chromatin structure on gene expression. The human genetic disease facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) provides an ideal model system for examining the activation or silencing of genes within the context of nuclear and chromosomal location. Remodeling of chromatin throughout the process of myogenesis underlies various stages of differentiation. FSHD results from integral deletions of D4Z4, a 3.3 kb tandem repeat localized to the subtelomere of chromosome 4q. D4Z4 has many characteristics of heterochromatin, and its deletion in FSHD appears to alter the chromatin structure of this region. Proper gene expression is thus disrupted, with consequent effects on muscle cell differentiation, or myogenesis.
Selected Publications:
Winokur ST, Chen Y-W, Tapscott SJ, van der Maarel SM, Martin JH, Chung S-A, Ehmsen JE, and Flanigan KM (2003) Expression profiling of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FHSD) muscle supports a defect in specific stages of myogenic differentiation. (in preparation)
Winokur ST, Barrett K, Martin JH, Forrester JR, Simon M, Tawil R, Chung S-A, Masny PS and Figlewicz DA (2003) Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) myoblasts demonstrate increased susceptibility to oxidative stress. Neuromuscular Disorders 13(4):322-333
Tsien F, Sun B, Hopkins NE, Vedanarayanan V, Figlewicz D, Winokur S, and Ehrlich M (2001) Hypermethylation of the FSHD syndrome-associated D4Z4 repeat in normal and FSHD somatic cell populations but not in ICF syndrome cells. Molecular Genetics and Metabolism 74(3):322-31
Nishizuka, S, Winokur, ST, Simon, M, Martin, JH, Tsujimoto H and Stanbridge EJ (2001) Gene expression profiling using synthetic oligonucleotide arrays in tumorigenic and non tumorigenic HeLa x human fibroblasts. Cancer Letters 165 201-209
Parseghian MH, Newcomb RL, Winokur ST, Hamkalo BA (2000) The distribution of somatic H1 subtypes is non-random on active vs. inactive chromatin: distribution in human fetal fibroblasts. Chromosome Res8(5):405-24
Winokur, ST and Shiang R (1998) The Treacher Collins syndrome (TCOF1) gene product, treacle, is localized to the nucleolus by signals in its carboxy terminus. Hum Molecular Genetics 7 (12): 1947-52
Xia H, Winokur, ST, Kuo W-L, and Bredt (1997) Actinin-associated LIM protein: identification of a domain interaction between PDZ and spectrin-like repeat motifs. J. Cell Biology 139(2):507-15
Winokur, ST, Bengtsson U, Vargas JC, Wasmuth JJ and Altherr MR (1996) The evolutionary distribution and structural organization of the homeobox-containing repeat D4Z4 indicates a functional role for the ancestral copy in the FSHD region. Hum Molecular Genetics 5:1567-1575
Altherr MR, Bengtsson, U, Makovich RP and Winokur, ST (1995) Efforts towards understanding the molecular basis of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. Muscle and Nerve S2: S73-78
