Michael Culbertson
Position title: Emeritus Professor
Email: mrculber@wisc.edu
Phone: 608-262-5388
Address:
Genetics and Molecular Biology
Transcriptional and post-transcriptional control of gene expression in yeast
- Address
- 435B Bock Labs
- Education
- Ph.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, Postdoctoral Research: Cornell University
- Department
- Genetics and Molecular Biology
- Research Interests
- Transcriptional and post-transcriptional control of gene expression in yeast
- Research Fields
- Gene Expression, Genomics & Proteomics, Fungi

Research Description:
I am interested in mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. We discovered and continue to study an mRNA decay pathway in yeast known as nonsense mediated mRNA decay (NMD). This pathway requires nuclear and cytoplasmic components. NMD monitors errors in gene expression that lead to premature termination of translation (RNA surveillance). NMD also regulates expression of a subset of several hundred yeast genes many of which are important for the structure and transmission of chromosomes and for cell surface components involved in sensing the extracellular environment. I am also interested in the nuclear RNA/DNA helicase Sen1p, which functions in transcription, DNA repair, and RNA processing. SEN1 is the ortholog of human SETX, which has been implicated in two clinically distinct neurological disorders.
Representative Publications:
Search PubMed for more publications by Michael Culbertson
Chinchilla, K., J.B. Rodriguez-Molina, D. Ursic, J.S. Finkel, A.Z. Ansari, and M.R. Culbertson. 2012. Interactions of Sen1/Nrd1/Nab3 with Multiple Phosphorylated Forms of the Rpb1 C-terminal Domain in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Eukaryotic Cell 11:417-429. PMID: 22286094
Finkel, J.S., K. Chinchilla, D. Ursic and M.R. Culbertson. 2010. Yeast helicase Sen1p performs two genetically separable functions in transcription and processing of U5 snRNA. Genetics, in press, January issue. PMID: 19884310.
Zheng, W., J.S. Finkel, S.M. Landers, R.M. Long and M.R. Culbertson. 2008. Nonsense-mediated decay of ASH1 nonsense transcripts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics180:1391-1405. PMID: 18791219.
Ursic, D., J.S. Finkel and M.R. Culbertson. 2008. Detecting phosphorylation-dependent interactions with the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase subunit Rpb1p using a yeast two-hybrid assay. RNA Biol 5:1-4. PMID: 18388493.
Guan, Q., W. Zheng, S. Tang, X. Liu, R.A. Zinkel, K. Tsui, B.Yandell and M.R. Culbertson. 2006. Impact of Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay on the global expression profile of budding yeast. PLoS Genetics 2:1924-1943. PMID: 17166056.