Barbara Mellone

Professor

Molecular and Cell Biology / Genetics and Genomics

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Education: Ph.D., Medical Research Council (MRC), Edinburgh, Scotland; Postdoc: Lawrence Berkeley Lab/UC Berkeley

Research Interests: Our lab studies the regulation of chromosome segregation during cell division in higher eukaryotes and the contribution of centromeres and kinetochores in this process. We use a variety of cell biological, biochemical, genetic and genomic approaches. We are also interested in determining how our findings apply to humans, and to diseases related to chromosome dysfunction, such as developmental abnormalities and cancer.

Selected Publications:

Chabot, B.J., Sun, R., Amjad, A., S.J. Hoyt, L. Ouyang, C. Courret, R. Drennan, L. Leo, A.M. Larracuente, L. J. Core, R. J. O’Neill, B.G. Mellone. Transcription of a centromere-enriched retroelement and local retention of its RNA are significant features of the CENP-A chromatin landscape. Genome Biol 25, 295 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-024-03433-1

Venkata S.P. Patchigolla, Barbara G. Mellone, Enrichment of Non-B-Form DNA at D. melanogaster Centromeres, Genome Biology and Evolution, Volume 14, Issue 5, May 2022, evac054, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evac054

Jason Palladino, Ankita Chavan, Anthony Sposato, Timothy D. Mason, Barbara G. Mellone, Targeted De Novo Centromere Formation in Drosophila Reveals Plasticity and Maintenance Potential of CENP-A Chromatin, Developmental Cell, Volume 52, Issue 3, 10 February 2020, Pages 379-394.e7, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2020.01.005

Rosin, L. and Mellone, B.G. (2017)  Centromeres Drive a Hard Bargain. Review. Trends in Genetics (in press). doi:10.1016/j.tig.2016.12.001.

Mellone, B.G. Winged Migration. (2017) Review. Mol Biol Cell. 2016 Nov 1;27(21):3189-3191.

Palladino, J, Mellone, B.G. (2016) The KAT’s out of the bag: histone acetylation promotes centromere assembly. Developmental Cell (Preview). doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2016.05.019

Chen, CC, Mellone, B.G. (2016) Chromatin assembly: Journey to the CENter of the chromosome. J Cell Biol. (Review). doi: 10.1083/jcb.201605005 .

Rosin, L., Mellone, B. (2016) Co-evolving CENP-A and CAL1 Domains Mediate Centromeric CENP-A Deposition across Drosophila Species. Developmental Cell doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2016.03.021.

Chen C-C., Bowers, S., Lipinszki, Z., Palladino, J., Trusiak, S., Bettini, E., Rosin, L., Przewloka, M.R., Glover, D.M., O’Neill, R. J., Mellone, B.G. (2015) Establishment of Centromeric Chromatin by the CENP-A Assembly Factor CAL1 Requires FACT-Mediated Transcription. Developmental Cell doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2015.05.012.

Chin-Chi Chen, Mekonnen Lemma Dechassa, Emily Bettini, Mary B. Ledoux, Christian Belisario, Patrick Heun, Karolin Luger, and Barbara G. Mellone. 2014. CAL1 is the Drosophila CENP-A assembly factor. J. Cell Biol. 10.1083/jcb.201305036, highlighted in JCB

Ross, B.D., Rosin, L., Thomae A.W., Hiatt, M.A., Vermaak, D., de la Cruz A.F., Imhof A., Mellone, B.G., Malik, H.S. Stepwise evolution of essential centromere function in a Drosophila Neogene. Science, 2013 Vol. 340 no. 6137 pp. 1211-1214.

Chin-Chi Chen, Elizabeth Greene, Sarion R. Bowers, Barbara G. Mellone. A Role for the CAL1-Partner Modulo in Centromere Integrity and Accurate Chromosome Segregation in Drosophila. (2012). PLoS ONE 7(9): e45094. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045094

Bateman, JR, Larschan, E., D’Souza, R., Marshall, L.S, Dempsey, K.E., Johnson, J.E., Mellone, B.G. and Kuroda, M.I. Genome-Wide Screen Identifies Genes That Affect Somatic Homolog Pairing in Drosophila. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics. doi: 10.1534/g3.112.002840 G3 July 1, 2012 vol. 2 no. 7 731-740

Phansalkar R., Lapierre P. and Mellone B.G. Evolutionary insights into the role of the essential centromere protein CAL1 in Drosophila. Chromosome Research 2012, DOI: 10.1007/s10577-012-9299-7

Kuratnik A, Senapati VE, Verma R, Mellone BG, Vella AT, Giardina C. 2012. Acute sensitization of colon cancer cells to inflammatory cytokines by prophase arrest. Biochem Pharmacol. 2012 Jan 25.

Mellone BG, Grive KJ, Shteyn V, Bowers SR, Oderberg I, et al. (2011) Assembly of Drosophila Centromeric Chromatin Proteins during Mitosis. PLoS Genet 7(5): e1002068. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002068

Williamson A*, Wickliffe KE*, Mellone BG, Song L, Karpen GH, Rape M. Identification of a physiological E2 module for the human anaphase-promoting complex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Oct 12.

Mellone B.G*., Zhang W*., Karpen G.H. Frodos found: Behold the CENP-A “Ring” bearers. Cell. 173. 2009.

Mellone B.G. Spatial and temporal regulation of centromeric chromatin. Biochemistry and Cell Biology. 2009 Feb;87(1):255-64.

Erhardt S.*, Mellone B.G.*, Betts C.M.*, Karpen G.H., Straight A.F. Identification of novel regulators of centromeric chromatin by genome-wide RNAi screening. J Cell Biol. 2008 Dec 1;183(5):805-18.

Castillo A.G.*, Mellone B.G.*, Partridge J.F., Richardson W., Hamilton G.L., Allshire R.C., Pidoux A.L. Plasticity of Fission Yeast CENP-A Chromatin Driven by Relative Levels of Histone H3 and H4. PLoS Genet. 2007 Jul 27;3(7):e121.

Zhang W., Mellone B.G., Karpen G.H. A specialized nucleosome has a ‘point’ to make. Cell. 2007 Jun 15;129(6):1047-9.

Mellone B., Erhardt S., Karpen G.H. The ABCs of centromeres. Nature Cell Biology. 2006 May;8(5):427-9.

Pidoux A., Mellone B., Allshire R.C. Analysis of chromatin in Fission Yeast. Methods. 2004 Jul;33(3):252-9.

Mellone B.G., Ball L., Suka N., Grunstein M.R., Partridge J.F., Allshire R.C. Centromere function in fission yeast is governed by the amino terminus of histone H3. Current Biology, Oct 14, 2003; 13(20): 1748-1757.

Mellone B.G. and Allshire R.C. Stretching it: Putting the CEN(P-A) in centromere. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development. Vol 13 No 2 April 2003.

* equal contribution