Email: v.godoycarter@neu.edu

Phone: 617.373.4042
Fax: 617.373.3724

Location: 420 A Mugar Life Sciences Bldg.
Mail: NU/Biology
         134 Mugar Life Sciences
         360 Huntington Avenue
         Boston, MA 02115 USA

Research Description

My laboratory is interested in addressing questions regarding the mechanisms that govern the adaptability of bacteria to a changing environment. I will approach this fundamental problem by looking at the effect of the challenges brought upon cells by environmental stress.  For the last few years I have been working on the potentially mutagenic Y-family of DNA polymerases, an exciting new class of specialized DNA polymerases.  While research on these DNA polymerases has been quite fruitful, many questions still remain.

I have focused my research on the Y-family DNA polymerases in Escherichia coli, encoded by the umuDC operon and the dinB gene. I have learned that both of these DNA polymerases are targeted to the replication fork through unknown mechanisms. When DNA damage occurs, either from external or internal sources, the replicative DNA polymerase is unable to copy past DNA lesions and replication stalling ensues. This is a potentially lethal event. I have learned that Escherichia coli DinB has a role responding to DNA damaging agents/environmental stress, and both UmuC and DinB are targeted to stalled replication forks whether they result from DNA damage or in a DNA damage-independent manner. I have also found that a mutant form of the UmuC DNA polymerases allows cells to survive metabolic stress.

I will investigate the signaling pathways that target these potentially mutagenic DNA polymerases to the replication fork and the signals/pathways eventually leading to cell death.

Selected Publications

Jarosz DF*, Godoy VG*, Delaney JC, Essigmann JM, Walker GC. A single amino acid governs enhanced activity of DinB DNA polymerases on damaged templates. Nature. 2006 Jan 12;439 (7073): 225-8. *equally contributing authors

Godoy VG, Jarosz DF, Walker FL, Simmons LA and Walker GC. Escherichia coli Y-family DNA Polymerases Respond to DNA Damage-Independent Inhibition of Replication Fork Progression. EMBO J. In press. Will be available Feb 22, 2006.

Godoy V.G., Beuning P., and Walker G.C. 2005 “Gene Expression in Bacterial Systems: The LexA Regulatory System” in Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry W. J. Lennarz and M. D. Lane, Eds., Academic Press/Elsevier Science, San Diego, CA.

Sutton MD, Smith BT, Godoy VG, Walker GC. The SOS response: recent insights into umuDC-dependent mutagenesis and DNA damage tolerance. Annu Rev Genet. 2000;34:479-497. Review.

Godoy VG, Fox MS. Transposon stability and a role for conjugational transfer in adaptive mutability. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 Jun 20;97(13):7393-8.

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