Jim Kadonaga: Exploring transcription and chromatin

By the 1950s, World War II had been over for several years, but its effects lingered on for families in the United States and elsewhere. For example, Japanese Americans were sometimes only allowed to purchase homes in certain areas, and, as a result, Jim Kadonaga grew up in a segregated neighborhood in East San Jose, California. Fortunately , says Kadonaga, his high school was a good one, staffed by dedicated teachers who supported and encouraged his interests. Kadonaga had a plan in place for college— although he actually departed from that path early on, ending up in unexplored territory. Today, Kadonaga is one of the world's foremost molecular biologists. His lab at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has helped dissect the DNA motifs (1) and factors (2) that regulate the activity of the RNA polymerase II core promoter , which controls all gene transcription. However, DNA sequences aren't the only things that affect transcription, because in cells DNA is not naked, but is wrapped around histones to form chroma-tin. Transcription should really be studied in the context of this environment, says Kadonaga, so his group is also working to understand chromatin assembly and dynamics (3–5). We recently called Kadonaga to discuss what lies around the corner for him. What was your fi rst career plan? My original plan, when I was in high school, was to go to an enology program and become a winemaker. I read all the wine books from UC Davis, and when I was a junior in high school, I bought 80 pounds of pinot noir grapes from Gilroy, California, and made fi ve gallons of pinot noir wine. Was it any good? It was actually really good! The next year, I got more ambitious, and I bought a half ton of cabernet sauvignon grapes and made 50 gallons of cabernet sauvignon. Unfortunately, the cabernet was not as good as the pinot noir. [Laughs] But then I took an evening extension course at San Jose State on winemaking and came to the realization that to be a winemaker, you need to have your own winery. I didn't, of course, have the capital to start up my own winery, so I decided that winemaking wasn't a good career for me. I ended up majoring in chemistry at MIT. It was my Plan B, I guess. Somehow I never got back to making wine. Once you …