Erman Karasu
ermankarasu.bsky.social
Erman Karasu
@ermankarasu.bsky.social
Research Assistant Professor @Vanderbilt Uni, Lab of Prof. David Cortez
Reposted by Erman Karasu
🥳Just published @nature.com. Over 25 years after the discovery of SPO11 as the enzyme responsible for initiating meiotic recombination, we finally succeeded in reconstituting its DNA cleavage activity.🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
SPO11 dimers are sufficient to catalyse DNA double-strand breaks in vitro - Nature
A biochemical system recapitulates the hallmarks of meiotic double-strand break formation, with mouse SPO11 catalysing break formation in the absence of any partners and remaining covalently atta...
www.nature.com
February 19, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Erman Karasu
Very cool study about selective protein degradation by FBXO31!
🎉Super excited to share our story on how the substrate receptor FBXO31 functions as a quality control factor by recognizing amides. This has been an amazing collaboration between Bode lab and @jcornlab.bsky.social. Special shutout goes to @matthiasmuhar.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
C-terminal amides mark proteins for degradation via SCF–FBXO31 - Nature
SCF–FBXO31 scans proteins for C-terminal amidation and marks them for subsequent proteasomal degradation.
www.nature.com
January 29, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Erman Karasu
Hello Bluesky, for my first post here I'm happy to share our latest preprint reporting the first biochemical reconstitution of DNA double-strand break formation by SPO11.

SPO11 dimerization controls meiotic DNA double-strand break formation.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
SPO11 dimerization controls meiotic DNA double-strand break formation
SPO11 initiates meiotic recombination through the induction of programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), but this catalytic activity had never been reconstituted in vitro. Here, using Mus musculus S...
www.biorxiv.org
November 21, 2024 at 10:18 AM
Reposted by Erman Karasu
Hi Bluesky. For my first post, I'd like to advertise the latest preprint from my lab, describing at long last our reconstitution of SPO11-dependent double-strand break formation from purified recombinant proteins. Outstanding work from PhD student Zhi (Zack) Zheng.
November 23, 2024 at 4:00 PM