Prof. Günther Schütz Molecular Biology of the Cell I

In our group we analyze signal-dependent gene expression mediated by nuclear as well as cell surface receptors. These receptors play important roles during development and in physiology and are involved in various disease states. Steroid hormones bind to nuclear receptors which leads by a variety of mechanisms to altered gene expression. To define the function of steroid hormone receptors in the intact organism we have generated germ-line mutations and since this often leads to lethality we have exploited extensively the potential of cell- and tissue-specific mutations using the bacterial Cre/loxP recombination system. This allowed the identification and characterization of functions of these signaling molecules which were previously unknown, such as the role of glucocorticoids and the glucocorticoid receptor in growth control. Temporally-controlled somatic mutations are used to define the function of the mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptor in the limbic system, the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis by the estradiol receptor alpha and the role of the orphan nuclear receptor tailless in neurogenesis. Inducible inactivation of the gene for TIF-IA, a factor crucial in rRNA synthesis, in dopaminergic neurons allowed the generation of mice with the phenotype of Parkinsonism.

Detailed information on the project can be found at
www.dkfz.de/en/molekularbiologie/index.html