Molecular Genetics & Microbiology

Santosh Chauhan, Ph.D.  Santosh

Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
MSC08 4660
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
E-mail: schauhan1@salud.unm.edu

Keywords:  Autophagy, xenophagy, inflammation, immunity, Crohn's disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, IRGM,  ZKSCAN3, pathological protein-aggregates

Research Interests:

Santosh 1

Autophagy is a fundamental catabolic process involved in cellular garbage degradation and recycling thus maintaining cellular metabolism and homeostasis. It is essential for cellular differentiation and embryonic development in mammals. In addition to these basic functions, autophagy plays several specialized roles in eukaryotic cells including cell-autonomous defense against intracellular pathogens and control of chronic inflammation. Not surprising, defects in autophagy have been linked to several diseases including cancer, neurodegeneration and cardiac pathologies.

My major research interests are to understand the molecular mechanisms whereby autophagy is regulated, how it accomplishes anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory functions, and how it degrades disease-related misfolded proteins or protein aggregates. Currently, in close collaboration with Dr. Vojo Deretic I am working on delineating how IRGM, a genetic risk factor for Crohn's disease and tuberculosis, regulates anti-microbial autophagy and prevents inflammation

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Teaching:

I tutor in the Genetics and Neoplasia block, phase I UME.

Selected Publications:

Link to PubMed

Mandell MA, Jain A*, Arko-Mensah J*, Chauhan S, Kimura T, Dinkins C, Silvestri G, Münch J, Kirchhoff F, Simonsen A, Wei Y, Levine B, Johansen T, Deretic V. TRIM proteins regulate autophagy and can target autophagic substrates by direct recognition. *Equal contribution to work. Developmental Cell. 2014 Aug 5. pii: S1534-5807(14)00402-X. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2014.06.013. [Epub ahead of print]

Dupont N, Chauhan, S., Arko-Mensah J, Castillo EF, Masedunskas A, Weigert R, Robenek H, Proikas-Cezanne T, Deretic V. Neutral lipid stores and lipase PNPLA5 contribute to autophagosome biogenesis. Current Biology. 2014 Mar 17;24 (6):609-20. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.02.008. Epub 2014 Mar 6.

Chauhan, S., Goodwin, J.G., Chauhan, S., Manyam, G., Wang, J., Kamat, A.M., and Boyd, D.D. (2013). ZKSCAN3 Is a Master Transcriptional Repressor of Autophagy. Molecular Cell. 10.1016/j.molcel.2013.01.024.  Highlighted in Cancer Discovery (AACR) journal, February 28, 2013; doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-RW2013-046.

Bradfute SB, Castillo EF, Arko-Mensah J, Chauhan S, Jiang S, Mandell M, Deretic V. Autophagy as an immune effector against tuberculosis. Curr Opin Microbiol. 2013 Jun 18. pii: S1369-5274(13)00070-2. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2013.05.003.

Chauhan, S., and Boyd DD. Regulation of u-PAR gene expression by H2A.Z is modulated by the MEK-ERK/AP-1 pathway. Nucleic Acids Res. 2012 Jan;40(2):600-13. 

Chauhan, S., Sharma, D., Singh, A., Surolia, A. and Tyagi, J.S. Comprehensive insights into Mycobacterium tuberculosis DevR (DosR) regulon activation switch. Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Sep 1;39(17):7400-14.

Chauhan, S., and Tyagi, J.S. (2011) Analysis of transcription at the oriC locus in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Microbiol Res. 2011 Sep 20;166(6):508-14.

Gupta, R.K., Chauhan, S. and Tyagi, J.S. K182G substitution in DevR or C(8) G mutation in the Dev box impairs protein-DNA interaction and abrogates DevR-mediated gene induction in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. FEBS J. 2011 Jun;278(12):2131-9.

Gautam, U.S., Chauhan, S. and Tyagi, J.S. Determinants outside the DevR C-terminal domain are essential for cooperativity and robust activation of dormancy genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. PLoS One. 2011 Jan 27;6(1):e16500.

Chauhan, S., Singh A, Tyagi JS. A single-nucleotide mutation in the -10 promoter region inactivates the narK2X promoter in Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG and has an application in diagnosis. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2010, Feb;303(2):190-6.

Chauhan S, Tyagi JS. Powerful induction of divergent tgs1-Rv3131 genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis is mediated by DevR interaction with a high-affinity site and an adjacent cryptic low-affinity site. J Bacteriol. 2009, Oct;191(19):6075-81.

Chauhan S, Kumar A, Singhal A, Tyagi JS, Krishna Prasad H. CmtR, a cadmium-sensing ArsR-SmtB repressor, cooperatively interacts with multiple operator sites to autorepress its transcription in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. FEBS J. 2009, Jul; 276(13):3428-39.

Chauhan S, Tyagi JS. Interaction of DevR with Multiple Binding Sites Synergistically Activates Divergent Transcription of narK2-Rv1738 Genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J Bacteriol. Aug 2008, p. 5394–5403, 190, No. 15.

Chauhan S, Tyagi JS. Cooperative binding of phosphorylated DevR to upstream sites is necessary and sufficient for activation of the Rv3134c-devRS operon in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Implication in the induction of DevR target genes. J Bacteriol, June 2008, p. 4301–4312, 190, No. 12.

Bagchi G*, Chauhan S*, Sharma D, Tyagi JS. Transcription and autoregulation of Rv3134c-devR-devS operon of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Microbiology (2005), 151, 4045-4053. *Equal contribution to work.