[2016 Spring Life Sciences & IBB Regular Seminar] ▶Subject: Foxh1 pioneer factor in endoderm formation: Causal relationship between Foxh1 and epigenetics ▶Speaker: Prof. Ken W.Y. Cho (Developmental and Cell Biology, UC Irvine) ▶Date: 4:00PM/May. 27(Fri.)/2016 ▶Place: Auditorium(1F), Postech Biotech Center *Abctract Foxh1 is a key maternal transcription factor that is known to mediate Nodal/TGFβ signaling during vertebrate embryogenesis. Here we present that Foxh1 bookmarks the regulatory regions of future endodermal genes, long before the activation of the genes, i.e., prior to the onset of Nodal signaling, the recruitment of RNA Polymerase II, and signs of major histone modifications. Thus, Foxh1 discriminates ~900 functionally important binding sites among 500,000 potential binding sites in the genome. How does Foxh1 pioneer factor know how to selectively bind the regulatory regions of future endodermal genes? We propose a general mechanism regulating the first event of cell fate specification based on our extensive genomic analyses. ▶Inquiry: Prof. Han, Jin Kwan (279-2126) * This seminar will be given in English. please refrain from taking photos during seminars. *