William Marzluff

About

William Marzluff is a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a joint appointment in Biology. His research focuses on the regulation of gene activity in animal cells, particularly the regulation of gene expression during the cell cycle by posttranscriptional mechanisms. He studies systems such as the regulation of histone mRNA during the mammalian cell cycle and early development in frogs and sea urchins. His work involves understanding how histone mRNAs, which end in a conserved stem-loop structure and lack poly(A)+ tails, are processed, transported, and regulated in terms of stability and translation. Marzluff has cloned the cDNA for the stem-loop binding protein (SLBP), a critical factor in histone mRNA metabolism, and investigates how SLBP functions in RNA binding, processing, transport, and regulation of mRNA half-life, as well as how SLBP itself is regulated in connection with cell cycle regulators. His research extends to studying embryonic stages where histone mRNAs are stable across multiple cell cycles, involving cloned embryo-specific SLBPs from frogs and sea urchins, and examining the roles of G1 cyclins, cyclin D and E, in early cell cycle regulation.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Cell biology
• Molecular biology
• Virology
• Medicine
• Computational biology

Selected publications

• Structure of an active human histone pre-mRNA 3′-end processing machinery

  Science · 2020 · 114 citations

  The 3'-end processing machinery for metazoan replication-dependent histone precursor messenger RNAs (pre-mRNAs) contains the U7 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein and shares the key cleavage module with the canonical cleavage and polyadenylation machinery. We reconstituted an active human histone pre-mRNA processing machinery using 13 recombinant proteins and two RNAs and determined its structure by cryo-electron microscopy. The overall structure is highly asymmetrical and resembles an amphora with…

  DOI

• CDK-Regulated Phase Separation Seeded by Histone Genes Ensures Precise Growth and Function of Histone Locus Bodies

  Developmental Cell · 2020 · 87 citations

  DOI

• Engineering highly efficient backsplicing and translation of synthetic circRNAs

  Molecular Therapy — Nucleic Acids · 2021 · 80 citations

  . We also observed that different IRES elements and exon length influenced circRNA expression and translation, revealing an exonic contribution to splicing, as evidenced by different RNA species produced. Taken together, these data provide new insight into improving the design and expression of synthetic circRNAs. When combined with AAV capsid and promoter technologies, the backsplicing introns and IRES elements constituting this modular platform significantly expand the gene expression toolkit.

  DOI

• A standardized nomenclature for mammalian histone genes

  Epigenetics & Chromatin · 2022-10-01 · 62 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Histones have a long history of research in a wide range of species, leaving a legacy of complex nomenclature in the literature. Community-led discussions at the EMBO Workshop on Histone Variants in 2011 resulted in agreement amongst experts on a revised systematic protein nomenclature for histones, which is based on a combination of phylogenetic classification and historical symbol usage. Human and mouse histone gene symbols previously followed a genome-centric system that was not applicable ac…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Genomewide CRISPR knockout screen identified PLAC8 as an essential factor for SADS-CoVs infection

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022 · 36 citations

  Zoonotic transmission of coronaviruses poses an ongoing threat to human populations. Endemic outbreaks of swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) have caused severe economic losses in the pig industry and have the potential to cause human outbreaks. Currently, there are no vaccines or specific antivirals against SADS-CoV, and our limited understanding of SADS-CoV host entry factors could hinder prompt responses to a potential human outbreak. Using a genomewide CRISPR knockout screen…

  DOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant T32GM008581

  NIH · $1.6M · 2009

• NIH Grant R01GM027789

  NIH · $1.9M · 1999

• Control of Histone mRNA Levels

  NIH · $11.6M · 1982–2024

Frequent coauthors

• Robert J. Duronio

  104 shared

• Zbigniew Domiński

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  72 shared

• Gary M. Wessel

  Brown University

  62 shared

• Richard O. Hynes

  Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  48 shared

• Odile Mulner‐Lorillon

  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  45 shared

• Julia Morales

  Baylor College of Medicine

  45 shared

• Antonio Fernández-Guerra

  University of Copenhagen

  45 shared

• Bertrand Cosson

  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  45 shared

Labs

• William Marzluff LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Biochemistry

  University of California, San Francisco

  1980

• M.S., Biochemistry

  University of California, San Francisco

  1976

• B.S., Chemistry

  University of California, San Diego

  1974

Awards & honors

• UNC School of Medicine Executive Associate Dean for Research…
• Kenan Distinguished Professorship, 2002

Similar researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Michael Rubinsteinh-90
• Ronald Swanstromh-83
• Brian D. Strahlh-77