Grant Hartzog

About

Grant Hartzog is a Professor of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology at UC Santa Cruz. He holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley, a Ph.D. from UC San Francisco, and completed postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on understanding the role of chromatin in gene expression and the mechanisms by which chromatin structure is manipulated to regulate transcription. He studies this in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae using biochemistry and genetics, with particular attention to proteins such as Spt4 and Spt5 that form a complex and modulate transcription by interacting with chromatin. Hartzog's work has shown that the Spt4-Spt5 complex facilitates transcription by removing nucleosomal barriers and reassembling nucleosomes behind transcribing RNA polymerase II, thus both promoting efficient transcription elongation and suppressing inappropriate transcription. His research also explores the association of this complex with RNA polymerase II and its recruitment to transcribed regions of genes. Additionally, his studies have identified interactions with other proteins involved in transcription elongation and chromatin structure, such as the Paf1 complex, Spt6, FACT, and Chd1. His work suggests links between transcription elongation and pre-mRNA processing, including splicing, and has demonstrated that mutations in Spt5 can cause splicing defects. His research contributes to a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing gene expression regulation.

Research topics

• Genetics
• Evolutionary biology
• Biology

Selected publications

• A Broadly Implementable Research Course in Phage Discovery and Genomics for First-Year Undergraduate Students

  mBio · 2014-02-05 · 507 citations

  articleOpen access

  UNLABELLED: Engaging large numbers of undergraduates in authentic scientific discovery is desirable but difficult to achieve. We have developed a general model in which faculty and teaching assistants from diverse academic institutions are trained to teach a research course for first-year undergraduate students focused on bacteriophage discovery and genomics. The course is situated within a broader scientific context aimed at understanding viral diversity, such that faculty and students are coll…

  PublisherDOI

• An inclusive Research Education Community (iREC): Impact of the SEA-PHAGES program on research outcomes and student learning

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2017-12-05 · 212 citations

  articleOpen access

  Engaging undergraduate students in scientific research promises substantial benefits, but it is not accessible to all students and is rarely implemented early in college education, when it will have the greatest impact. An inclusive Research Education Community (iREC) provides a centralized scientific and administrative infrastructure enabling engagement of large numbers of students at different types of institutions. The Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutiona…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Spt4–Spt5 complex: A multi-faceted regulator of transcription elongation

  Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Gene Regulatory Mechanisms · 2012-09-06 · 147 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Key Role for Chd1 in Histone H3 Dynamics at the 3′ Ends of Long Genes in Yeast

  PLoS Genetics · 2012-07-12 · 72 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Chd proteins are ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling enzymes implicated in biological functions from transcriptional elongation to control of pluripotency. Previous studies of the Chd1 subclass of these proteins have implicated them in diverse roles in gene expression including functions during initiation, elongation, and termination. Furthermore, some evidence has suggested a role for Chd1 in replication-independent histone exchange or assembly. Here, we examine roles of Chd1 in replication-inde…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cluster M Mycobacteriophages Bongo, PegLeg, and Rey with Unusually Large Repertoires of tRNA Isotypes

  Journal of Virology · 2013-12-12 · 47 citations

  articleOpen access

  UNLABELLED: Genomic analysis of a large set of phages infecting the common host Mycobacterium smegmatis mc(2)155 shows that they span considerable genetic diversity. There are more than 20 distinct types that lack nucleotide similarity with each other, and there is considerable diversity within most of the groups. Three newly isolated temperate mycobacteriophages, Bongo, PegLeg, and Rey, constitute a new group (cluster M), with the closely related phages Bongo and PegLeg forming subcluster M1 an…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01GM060479

  NIH · $2.2M · 2011

Frequent coauthors

• Fred Winston

  Harvard University

  22 shared

• Hiroshi Handa

  Tokyo Medical University

  20 shared

• Takuro Wada

  20 shared

• Tiffani K. Quan

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  18 shared

• Stephen Buratowski

  Harvard University

  17 shared

• Anwarul Ferdous

  The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  16 shared

• Keiichi Yano

  16 shared

• Satoru Sugimoto

  Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine

  16 shared

Education

• PhD, Biochemistry and Biophysics

  University of California, San Francisco

  1992

• BA, Biophysics

  University of California Berkeley

  1984

Similar researchers at University of California, Santa Cruz

• Carol Greiderh-100
• John Tamkunh-55
• William Sullivanh-55