Assistant Professor

Joined the faculty: 2005

Affiliations: Department of Ophthalmology, West Virginia University Eye Institute, Center for Neuroscience

Teaching: NBAN 795, BIOC 339

Office: 240
Phone: 304-598-6958
Fax: 304-598-6928
Email: sokolovm@rcbhsc.wvu.edu

Molecular chaperones are proteins that assist biosynthesis of other proteins by helping their nascent polypeptide chains to fold into the unique three-dimensional shapes found in the mature proteins. Chaperone-assisted protein folding is an essential cellular function, because malfunction of even one kind of molecular chaperones may have a broad negative effect on protein biosynthesis. Endoplasmic reticulum stress and the unfolded protein response, evoked by aberrant protein folding, are widely recognized as a potent cause of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, understanding molecular mechanisms of protein homeostasis in neurons that require molecular chaperones are primary research interests of this laboratory.

We recently identified an essential eukaryotic chaperonin complex, TRiC/CCT, to be strongly expressed in retinal photoreceptors. Our next goal is to elucidate specific roles of TRiC/CCT and its cofactor phosducin-like protein 1 and phosducin in the folding and assembly of visual heterotrimeric G proteins, transducin. These studies are expected to provide important insights into the mechanisms of transducin homeostasis, which is essential for visual function and photoreceptors viability. Our multi-tiered experimental approach provides an opportunity to master a variety of technique, including measuring gene activities and proteins expression and stability, studies of protein-protein interaction using molecular and optical approaches, visual electrophysiology, and mouse gene manipulations.

  Selected Publications:

• Song H, Sokolov M (2009) “Analysis of protein expression and compartmentalization in retinal neurons using serial tangential sectioning of the retina” Journal of Proteome Research 8 : 346-351.
   
• Krispel CM, Sokolov M, Chen YM, Song H, Herrmann R, Arshavsky VY, Burns ME (2007) “Phosducin regulates the expression of transducin bg subunits in rod photoreceptors and does not contribute to phototransduction adaptation” Journal of General Physiology 130 : 303-312.
   
• Song H, Belcastro M, Young EJ, Sokolov M (2007) “Compartment-specific phosphorylation of phosducin in rod underlies adaptation to various levels of illumination” Journal of Biological Chemistry 282 : 23613-2362.
   
• Sokolov M, Strissel KJ, Leskov IB, Michaud NA, Govardovskii VI, Arshavsky VY (2004) “Phosducin facilitates light-driven transducin translocation in rod photoreceptors: evidence from the phosducin knockout mouse” Journal of Biological Chemistry 279 : 19149-19156.
   
• Sokolov M, Lyubarsky AL, Strissel KJ, Savchenko A, Govardovskii VI, Pugh EN, Arshavsky VY (2002) “Massive light-dependent translocation of transducin between the functional compartments of rod photoreceptors: a novel mechanism of light adaptation” Neuron 34: 95-106.