gumport@uiuc.edu
190C Med. Sci. Bldg.
Office: (217) 333-2852
Fax: (217) 333-8868
Mail to:
Department of Biochemistry
419 Roger Adams Lab B-4
600 S Mathews Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
Richard I Gumport
Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry
Education
B.S. 1960 University of Chicago
Ph.D. 1968 University of Chicago
Postdoc. 1969-71 Stanford University
Understanding how enzymes and proteins interact with specific sequences of DNA
I am interested in nucleic acid biochemistry and enzymology and in molecular biology. In broad terms, I study protein-DNA interactions in two systems using site-specific recognition of DNA sequences by restriction endonucleases and DNA modification methyltransferases (methylases) and site-specific genetic recombination between bacteriophage A and P22 and their bacterial chromosomal targets. I study recombination in collaboration with Professor Jeffrey Gardner of the Microbiology Department.
I no longer accept graduate or undergraduate students for laboratory research projects, but will mentor undergraduates in library-research and scientific-writing projects.
Representative Publications
Mattis AN, Gumport RI, Gardner JF., Purification and Characterization of Bacteriophage P22 Xis Protein. J Bacteriol. 2008 Vol. 190: May 23. [Abstract]
Gumport, R.I., Dies, F.H., Gerber, N.C., and Koeppe, II, R.E. (2006) "Student Companion to Accompany Biochemistry" 6th ed., W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, NY.
Thomas, C.B., and Gumport, R.I. 2006. Dimerization of the bacterial RsrI N6-Adenine DNA methyltransferase. Nucleic Acids Res. 34:806–15. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
Swalla, B.M., Cho, E.H., Gumport, R.I., and Gardner, J.F. 2003. The Molecular basis of cooperative DNA binding between lambda and excisionase. Mol. Microbiol., 50:89–99.
Roberts, R.J., Belfort, M., Bestor, T., Bhagwat, A.S., Bickle, T.A., Bitinaite, J., Blumenthal, R.M., Degtyarev, S.K.H., Dryden, D.T., Dybvig, K., Firman, K., Gromova, E.S., Gumport, R.I., Halford, S.E., Hattman, S., Heitman, J., Hornby, D.P., Janulatis, A., Jeltsch, A., Josephsen, J., Kiss, A., Klaenhammer, T.R., Kobayashi, I., Kong, H., Kruger, D.H., Lacks, S., Marinus, M.G., Miyahara, M., Morgan, R.D., Murray, N.E., Nagaraja, V., Piekarowicz, A., Pingoud, A., Raleigh, E., Rao, D. N., Reich, N., Repin, V.E., Selker, E.U., Shaw, P.C., Stein, D.C., Stoddard, B.L., Szybalski, W., Trautner, T.A., Van Etten, J.L., Vitor, J.M., Wilson, G.G., and Xu, S.Y., 2003. A nomenclature of testriction enzymes, DNA methyltransferases, homing endonucleases and their genes. Nucleic Acids Res. 31:1805–12.
Swalla, B.M., Gumport, R.I., and Gardner, J.F. 2003. Conservation of structure and function among tyrosine recombinases: Homology-based modeling of the lambda integrase core-binding domain. Nucleic Acids Res. 31:805–18.
Thomas, C.B., Scavetta, R.D., Gumport, R.I., Churchill, M.E.A. 2003. Structures of liganded and unligarded rsrl N6-adenine DNA methyltransferase: A distinct orientation for active cofactor binding. J. Biol. Chem. 278:26094–101.
Cho, E.H., Gumport, R.I., and Gardner, J.F. 2002. AInteractions between integrase and excisionase in the phage lambda excisive nucleoprotein complex. J. Bacteriol., 184:5200–3.
Kazmierczak, R. A., Swalla, B. M., Burgin, A. B., Gumport, R. I., and Gardner, J. F. 2002. Regulation of site-specific recombination by the carboxyl terminus of bacteriophage lambda intergrase. Nucleic Acids Res. 30:5193–204.