Faculty Sponsor: Prof. Scott Holmes, MB&B
Simon Moss
Simon is a rising senior (’26) from Oakland, CA. He graduated from Saint Mary’s College High School in 2022 and is currently pursuing a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry major and Data Analysis and Chemistry minors at Wesleyan University. His work with the Holmes lab uses genetic and genomic approaches to investigate the role of histone proteins in chromatin dynamics and silencing. Simon is an avid runner and amateur athlete, and loves to play the piano and guitar. After graduation, Simon intends to pursue a PhD in molecular genetics.
Abstract: The functions of linker histone H1 and variant histone H2A.Z in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are relatively uncharacterized. We have shown that loss of H2A.Z causes several defects, including alterations in transcriptional silencing and chromosome instability, that can be ameliorated by loss of H1. This suggests that a balance of H2A.Z and H1 function regulates various pathways in yeast. Prior studies report that loss of H2A.Z affects the transcription of a broad set of genes in yeast, while strains lacking H1 exhibit few changes in gene expression. We are conducting RNA-sequencing experiments in strains lacking both H1 and H2A.Z to further explore H1-H2A.Z interactions.
smoss_QAC_2025_summer_poster