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This book gives a comprehensive overview of the unique roles that non-coding repetitive elements such as satellite DNAs play in different physiological and evolutionary processes.
It presents the gene-regulatory aspect of satellite DNAs in different model systems including mammals, insects and plants. In addition, evolutionary aspects of activation of satellite DNAs in terms of transcription and proliferation are highlighted, revealing the role of satellite DNAs in the process of adaptation to changing environment and in the speciation process.
Finally, the book discusses satellite DNA activation during pathological transformation and the mechanisms by which they affect disease progression. Namely, some satellite DNAs promote the oncogenic processes by affecting genome epigenetic regulation as well as genome integrity. Readers get a full overview of the latest research on satellite DNA.
Ðurđica Ugarković received her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Zagreb and performed postdoctoral studies at the Laboratory of Applied Molecular Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. She is a senior researcher and head of the Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics at Ruder Boškovic Institute in Zagreb and a professor at Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia.
Her major research interest is studying the evolution and function of satellite DNA, which is a major DNA component of heterochromatin in many eukaryotes. Using the beetle Tribolium castaneum as a model system, her group demonstrated for the first time the role of satellite DNA in the modulation of gene expression and revealed the molecular mechanism of their gene-regulatory activity. The influence of satellite DNA on neighbouring genes is epigenetic in nature and is induced upon heat stress, suggesting an important role of satellite DNA in environmental adaptation. Ð. Ugarković predicted the presence of functional elements within satellite DNAs and, together with colleagues at the Ruder Boškovic Institute, provided the first experimental evidence for the existence of a set or a "library" of satellite DNAs shared among related species. This explained a mode of satellite DNA evolution that is based on random amplification from the common "library".
She is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) since 2000 and an associate member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
