Research Program: Genetic Mechanisms of Cancer
Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development; Department of Microbiology

jberman@umn.edu
612-625-1971 — office
612-625-9786 — lab
Preferred method of contact: e-mail

Dr. Berman received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1984 from the Weizmann Institute of Science. She conducted postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Bik Tye in the Section of Biochemistry at Cornell University. She joined the University of Minnesota in 1986. She conducts research on yeast morphogenesis, genome stability and global transcription network organization.

Research Interests

Genome stability in Candida albicans. Candida albicans is the leading cause of invasive fungal disease in premature infants, surgical patients and cancer patients receiving immunosuppressive chemotherapy. Furthermore, despite appropriate anti-fungal therapy, mortality from candidemia is over 30%. Resistance to the limited number of available anti-fungal drugs is also an issue. We are using Comparative Genome Hybridization together with Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Arrays to identify genomic changes in this non-meiotic yeast. We find genome alterations such as reciprocal isochromosome formation and telomere-telomere attachments, that occur during the mitotic propagation and are tightly associated with drug resistant phenotypes. We are studying the mechanisms that give rise to these types of genome changes.

Morphogenesis and pathogenicity in Candida Albicans. While C. albicans is present in the gastrointestinal tracts of virtually all humans, it becomes a pathogen under conditions that permit it to adhere, colonize and invade epithelial tissues. The ability of C. albicans to undergo a morphogenetic switch between a budding yeast form and highly elongated filamentous forms (hyphae and pseudohyphae) is strongly correlated with the virulence of the organism. The lab is investigating the mechanisms ofC. albicans morphogenesis. Some of our studies focus on the gene INT1, which encodes a protein that localizes to the site of septation and is required for morphogenesis in response to some signals. The lab has been analyzing therole of cell cycle regulation in mediating morphogenetic changes in C. albicans. As part of this effort, they have generated yellow, green and cyan-fluorescentprotein vectors, adapted for the unique C. albicans codon usage and for selection in C. albicans cells, to follow the localization and movement of proteins within living C. albicans yeast, pseudohyphal and hyphal cells. The Berman lab also studies the role of cytoskeletalproteins in morphogenesis and in the cell cycle processes that differ between yeast,pseudohyphae and true hyphae.

Selected Publications

Selmecki A, Forche A, Berman J. Aneuploidy and isochromosome formation in drug resistant Candida albicans. Science 2006;313:367-370.

Berman J. Morphogenesis and cell cycle progression in Candida albicans. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 2006 [Epub ahead of print].

Ihmels J, Bergmann S, Gerami-Nejad M, Yanai I, Berman J, Barkai N. Rewiring of the yeast transcriptional network through the evolution of motif usage. Science 2005;309:938-940.

Crampin H, Finley K, Gerami-Nejad M, Court H, Gale C, Berman J, Sudbery P. Candida albicans hyphae have a Spitzenkörper that is a distinct structure from the polarisome found yeast and pseudohyphae. J Cell Sci. 2005;118:2935-2947.

Bensen ES, Clemente-Blanco A, Finley KR, Correa-Bordes J, Berman J. The mitotic cyclins Clb2p and Clb4p affect morphogenesis in Candida albicans. Mol Biol Cell 2005;16:387-400.

Finley K, Berman J. Microtubules in C. albicans Hyhpae drive nuclear dynamics and connect cell Cycle progression to morphogenesis. Eukaryotic Cell 2005;4:1697-1711. (Featured on the cover of the journal and highlighted in ASM News Nov. 2005.)

Ihmels J, Bergmann S, Berman J, Barkai N. Comparative gene expression analysis by a differential clustering approach: Application to the Candida albicans transcription program. PLoS Genetics 2005;1(e39).

Selmecki A, Bergmann S, Berman J. Comparative genome hybridization reveals widespread aneuploidy in Candida albicans laboratory strains. Mol Microbiol. 2004;55:1553-1565.

Bensen E, Martin S, Berman J, Davis DA. Transcriptional profiling in C. albicans reveals new adaptive responses to extracellular pH and functions for Rim101p. Mol Microbiol. 2004;54:1335-1351.

Sudbery PE, Gow NAR, Berman J. The distinct morphological states of Candida albicans. Trends Microbiol. 2004;12:317-324.