Senior Fellow

Dietlind Gerloff

Education and Work

• MS in Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich
• PhD in Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich
• Postdoc in Computational Biology, UC San Francisco
• Lecturer in Bioinformatics, University of Edinburgh UK (1999-2006)
• Asst Professor, Biomolecular Engineering, UC Santa Cruz (2007-2013)
• Senior Fellow, FfAME (2013-present)

Research summary

My group is developing novel approaches to facilitate research in all areas of modern biology by working at the interface between information technology and engineering, structural biochemistry, evolutionary biology, and experimental molecular biology. Particularly the molecular understanding of biomolecular interactions, and our ability to predict them from sequence can provide helpful clues toward resolving a variety of important scientific issues, from evolutionary mechanisms to experimental design in functional genomics. Our specific research projects often begin with collaborations with a lab facing a particular data challenge, or simply wanting to find out more about their favorite gene/protein/species.

Our collaborations, and our pursuit of the topic beyond this, have created a varied research portfolio over the years. Find our most recent publications, and as their authors the resourceful students and colleagues who made them possible. We also maintain three web-based resources:

• MaGnET: Malaria Genome Exploration Tool
• 6-Cys Domain Models Database
• BiSC: Binary SubComplex in Proteins Database

A list of recent publications is below. For a more complete list, please visit this collection on PubMed.

Recent Publications

Polymerase Interactions with Wobble Mismatches in Synthetic Genetic Systems and Their Evolutionary Implications
Christian B. Winiger, Myong-Jung Kim, Shuichi Hoshika, Ryan W. Shaw, Jennifer D. Moses, Mariko F. Matsuura, Dietlind L. Gerloff, and Steven A. Benner
Biochemistry 55 (28) 3847-3850 (2016) DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.6b00533
<Abstract>

In addition to completing the Watson-Crick nucleobase matching "concept" (big pairs with small, hydrogen bond donors pair with hydrogen bond acceptors), artificially expanded genetic information systems (AEGIS) also challenge DNA polymerases with a complete set of mismatches, including wobble mismatches. Here, we explore wobble mismatches with AEGIS with DNA polymerase 1 from Escherichia coli. Remarkably, we find that the polymerase tolerates an AEGIS:standard wobble that has the same geometry as the G:T wobble that polymerases have evolved to exclude but excludes a wobble geometry that polymerases have never encountered in natural history. These results suggest certain limits to "structural analogy" and "evolutionary guidance" as tools to help synthetic biologists expand DNA alphabets.

Evolution of functional six-nucleotide DNA
Zhang, L., Yang, Z., Sefah, K., Bradley, K. M., Hoshika, S., Kim, M-J,. Kim, H-J., Zhu., Jimenez, E., Cansiz, S., Teng, I-T., Champanhac, C, McLendon, C., Liu, C., Zhang, W., Gerloff, D. L., Huang, Z., Tan, W., Benner, S. A.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2015) DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b02251
<Abstract>

Axiomatically, the density of information stored in DNA, with just four nucleotides (GACT), is higher than in a binary code, but less than it might be if synthetic biologists succeed in adding independently replicating nucleotides to genetic systems. Such addition could also add additional functional groups, not found in natural DNA but useful for molecular performance. Here, we consider two new nucleotides (Z and P, 6-amino-5- nitro-3-(1'-B-D-2'-deoxyribo-furanosyl)-2(1H)-pyridone and 2-amino-8-(1'-B-D-2'-deoxyribofuranosyl)-imidazo- [1,2-a]-1,3,5-triazin-4(8H)-one). These are designed to pair via strict Watson?Crick geometry. These were added to a laboratory in vitro evolution (LIVE) experiment; the GACTZP library was challenged to deliver molecules that bind selectively to liver cancer cells, but not to untransformed liver cells. Unlike in classical in vitro selection systems, low levels of mutation allow this system to evolve to create binding molecules not necessarily present in the original library. Over a dozen binding species were recovered. The best had Z and/or P in their sequences. Several had multiple, nearby, and adjacent Zs and Ps. Only the weaker binders contained no Z or P at all. This suggests that this system explored much of the sequence space available to this genetic system and that GACTZP libraries are richer reservoirs of functionality than standard libraries.

Pooled assembly of marine metagenomic datasets: enriching annotation through chimerism
Jonathan D. Magasin and Dietlind L. Gerloff
Bioinformatics (2015) 31:311-317
<Abstract>

Motivation: Despite advances in high-throughput sequencing, marine metagenomic samples remain largely opaque. A typical sample contains billions of microbial organisms from thousands of genomes and quadrillions of DNA base pairs. Its derived metagenomic dataset underrepresents this complexity by orders of magnitude because of the sparseness and shortness of sequencing reads. Read shortness and sequencing errors pose a major challenge to accurate species and functional annotation. This includes distinguishing known from novel species. Often the majority of reads cannot be annotated and thus cannot help our interpretation of the sample.
Results: Here, we demonstrate quantitatively how careful assembly of marine metagenomic reads within, but also across, datasets can alleviate this problem. For 10 simulated datasets, each with species complexity modeled on a real counterpart, chimerism remained within the same species for most contigs (97%). For 42 real pyrosequencing ('454') datasets, assembly increased the proportion of annotated reads, and even more so when datasets were pooled, by on average 1.6% (max 6.6%) for species, 9.0% (max 28.7%) for Pfam protein domains and 9.4% (max 22.9%) for PANTHER gene families. Our results outline exciting prospects for data sharing in the metagenomics community. While chimeric sequences should be avoided in other areas of metagenomics (e.g. biodiversity analyses), conservative pooled assembly is advantageous for annotation specificity and sensitivity. Intriguingly, our experiment also found potentia

3D topology of the SMC2/SMC4 sub-complex from chicken condensin I revealed by cross-linking and molecular modeling
Barysz H, Kim JH, Chen ZA, Hudson DF, Rappsilber J, Gerloff DL, Earnshaw WC
Open Biology , The Royal Society Publishing (2015) 5:150005
<Abstract>

SMC proteins are essential components of three protein complexes that are important for chromosome structure and function. The cohesin complex holds replicated sister chromatids together, whereas the condensin complex has an essential role in mitotic chromosome architecture. Both are involved in interphase genome organisation. SMC-containing complexes are large (>650 kDa for condensin) and contain long anti-parallel coiled-coils. They are thus difficult subjects for conventional crystallographic and electron cryomicroscopic studies. Here we have used amino acid-selective cross-linking and mass spectrometry (CLMS) combined with structure prediction to develop a full-length molecular draft 3D-structure of the SMC2/SMC4 dimeric backbone of chicken condensin. We assembled homology-based molecular models of the globular heads and hinges with the lengthy coiled-coils modelled in fragments, using numerous high-confidence cross-links and accounting for potential irregularity. Our experiments reveal that isolated condensin complexes can exist with their coiled-coil segments closely apposed to one another along their lengths and define the relative spatial alignment of the two anti-parallel coils. The centres of the coiled-coils can also approach one another closely in situ in mitotic chromosomes. In addition to revealing structural information, our cross-linking data suggest that both H2A and H4 may have roles in condensin interactions with chromatin.

Protein Domains of Unknown Function Are Essential in Bacteria
Norman F. Goodacre, Dietlind L. Gerloff, Peter Uetz
mBio , American Society for Microbiology (2014) 5(1):e00744-13
<Abstract>

More than 20% of all protein domains are currently annotated as "domains of unknown function" (DUFs). About 2,700 DUFs are found in bacteria compared with just over 1,500 in eukaryotes. Over 800 DUFs are shared between bacteria and eukaryotes, and about 300 of these are also present in archaea. A total of 2,786 bacterial Pfam domains even occur in animals, including 320 DUFs. Evolutionary conservation suggests that many of these DUFs are important. Here we show that 355 essential proteins in 16 model bacterial species contain 238 DUFs, most of which represent single-domain proteins, clearly establishing the biological essentiality of DUFs. We suggest that experimental research should focus on conserved and essential DUFs (eDUFs) for functional analysis given their important function and wide taxonomic distribution, including bacterial pathogens.

MaGnET: Malaria Genome Exploration Tool
Sharman JL and Gerloff DL
Bioinformatics (2013) 2350-2352
<Abstract>

Summary: The Malaria Genome Exploration Tool (MaGnET) is a software tool enabling intuitive 'exploration-style' visualization of functional genomics data relating to the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. MaGnET provides innovative integrated graphic displays for different datasets, including genomic location of genes, mRNA expression data, protein–protein interactions and more. Any selection of genes to explore made by the user is easily carried over between the different viewers for different datasets, and can be changed interactively at any point (without returning to a search).

Availability and Implementation: Free online use (Java Web Start) or download (Java application archive and MySQL database; requires local MySQL installation) at http://malariagenomeexplorer.org
Contact: joanna.sharman@ed.ac.uk or dgerloff@ffame.org

(View publication page for Dietlind Gerloff)