Du Chao
| Date：2013-07-15
Du Chao Ph.D.
Department of Biology, College of Biological Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology.
Center for Biological Production, 26 Yuxiang Road, Shijiazhuang, 050000, P.R. China
Tel: 18630173018
E-mail: duchaopku@126.com
Personal details
Gender: Male
Date of birth: Feb 07, 1969
Education
2007 Ph.D. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Peking University Health Science Center
2002 MS Agriculture, Department of Crop Genetics and Breeding, Hebei Agriculture University
1990 BS Biochemistry, Department of Biology, Lanzhou University
Research experience
My research interests are related with transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes, and my current research is focused on the relationship between MyoD and myogenin in activating the muscle-specific genes. To investigate the role of myogenin in controlling the expresssion of muscle specific genes, I knocked down the myogenin in myoblasts C2C12 cells and fibroblasts NIH3T3 cells transfected with MyoD, and found that the expression of some late activated genes was regulated by myogenin. ChIP experiments also demonstrated binding of myogenin to these genes regulatory region during differentiation. To further investigate the role of myogenin, I cotransfected NIH3T3 cells with MyoD-ER and myogenin. By monitoring gene expression level upon removal of β-estradiol at different time points, I found that myogenin could enhance the expression of late-stage genes. To investigate the mechanism by which myogenin enhances these gene expression, Sodium Butyrate treatment was used to judge chromatin remodeling status on these genes. The results showed that Myog enhances the expression of MyoD-initiated late muscle genes through MyoD-dependent ability of Myog to induce chromatin remodeling. In addition to the results regarding the role of myogenin, I have shown that in MyoD or myogenin differentiated 10T1/2 cells, when the activated myogenin or MyoD was knocked down, the expression of endogenous MyoD or myogenin decreased more dramatically than the targerts, e.g. MCK, MHC and Tncs. Hence, I believe MyoD or myogenin may autoregulates its own expression through the circuit formed by these two MRFs.
Teaching experience
Instructor (2008-), molecular biology (72hr) for undergraduates from Bioscience Department.
Instructor (2008-), molecular biology (32hr) for undergraduates from Biolgical Engineering Department and Food Department.
Instructor (2007-), Proteomics (24hr) for undergraduates from Bioscience Department.
Instructor (2007-), Proteomics (20hr) for graduates from Botany Major.
Recent Publications
Chao Du, Ya-Qiong Jin, Jun-Juan Qi, Zhen-Xing Ji, Shu-Yan Li, Guo-Shun An, Hong-Ti Jia1,and Ju-Hua Ni Effects of Myogenin on Expression of Late MuscleGenes through MyoD-Dependent Chromatin Remodeling Ability of Myogenin. Molecules and Cells. 2012, 34: 133-142,
Zhen-Xing Ji, Chao Du, Guo-Sheng Wu, Shu-Yan Li, Guo-Shun An, Yu-Xi Yang, Ru Jia, Hong-Ti Jia, Ju-Hua Ni. Synergistic up-regulation of muscle LIM protein expression in C2C12 and NIH3T3 cells by myogenin and MEF2C. Mol Genet Genomics. 2009, 281:1–10
Tian Peng, Du Chao, Song Jianjun, Qiu Yan, Wang Linshan. Molecular Identification and Sequence Analysis of Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus from Hebei Province Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin. 2012, 28(07):119-125