Dr. Carlo Maria Di Liegro Scientific Profile

Surname: Di Liegro
First name: Carlo Maria
Date of birth: July 1st, 1959
Place of birth: Caltanissetta (Italy)
Home address: Vicolo Castelnuovo 11,
90134, Palermo, Italy
Work address: Dipartimento STEMBIO, sezione di Biologia Cellulare,
Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 16, 90128, Palermo, Italy
Phone numbers: +39-0916577415 (office);
+39-0916577446 (lab)
Education: Degree in Biology, Palermo, Italy, 1984
PhD in Cellular and Developmental
Biology, Palermo, Italy, 1992
Position: Researcher at the University of Palermo, Italy,
STEMBIO Department, Faculty of Science

Scientific activity:
1979-1984:
Student in Biology at Palermo University, working in Prof. G.Spinelli’s lab on a project over histone genes organization in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus
1985-1988:
Fellowship and then research position in the “A. Sclavo” Research Center (Siena, Italy), in Prof. M.L. Melli’s lab. In this period, he studies the regulation of the expression of the gene coding for human 7SK RNA, and the expression of the gene coding for human IL1-beta. He takes part in the production of recombinant IL1-beta, both in yeast and bacteria.
1988-1995
Fellowship and Doctoral fellowship at the University of Palermo, Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology, in Prof. I. Di Liegro’s and Prof. S. Feo’s labs. In this years, he studies the molecular aspects of thyroid hormones activity during rat brain development, and c-myc gene amplification in human tumor cell lines.
1996-2000
He works as a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. J.M. Cuezva’s lab, at the Universidad Autònoma de Madrid, Centro de Biologìa Molecular “S.Ochoa”, first in an European Community Program and then with a grant from the Ministerio de Educaciòn y Ciencia. During this time, he studies the regulation of the expression of rat liver F1-ATPase beta subunit; more specifically, he works on the post-transcriptional regulation of its messenger RNA, and protein import into mitochondria in cell cultures. Morever, he studies the translational “enhancer” activity of the 3’UTRs of different mRNAs coding for proteins of the oxidative phosphorylation complexes.
2000-2003
Post-doctoral fellow with a research grant from the University of Palermo at the Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology, studying the molecular mechanisms determining animal-vegetative axis formation during P.lividus development. Moreover, he works on mitochondrial Hsp56 expression in sea urchin and, more specifically, on messenger RNA localization during embryonic development and on RNA-binding proteins.
2004-2011
Researcher at University of Palermo, Cellular and Developmental Biology Department.
He worked until 2008 in Prof. A.M. Rinaldi’s lab, studying transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms of regulation of the genes coding for mitochondrial proteins.
Since 2009 he is involved in the study of proteins which act in the post-transcriptional mechanisms in the nervous system, with a special interest on the regulation of the expression of histone variants during development and differentiation.

Characterization of proteins involved in the mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation of the expression in the nervous system, both in neurons and astrocytes.
Production and purification of recombinant proteins.

•Di Liegro C., Bellafiore M., Izquierdo J.M., Rantanen A. and Cuezva J.M. 3’-untranslated regions of oxidative phosphorylation mRNAs function in vivo as enhancers of translation. Biochem. J. 352 (2000) 109-115.
•Ricart J., Izquierdo J.M., Di Liegro C. and Cuezva J.M.
Assembly of the ribonucleoprotein complex containing the mRNA of the mitochondrial H+-ATP sinthase requires the participation of two distal cis-acting elements and a complex set of cellular trans-acting proteins. Biochem. J. 365 (2002) 417-428.
•Cannino G., Di Liegro C., Di Liegro I. and Rinaldi A.M.
Analysis of citochrome c oxidase subunits III and IV expression in developing rat brain.Neuroscience 128 (2004) 91-98.
•Cannino G., Di Liegro C., Luparello C. and Rinaldi A.M.
Mitochondrial protein expression in rattus norvegicus and human cells
Caryologia 59 (2006) 375-378.
•Di Liegro C. and Rinaldi A.M.
Hsp56 mRNA in Paracentrotus lividus embryos binds to a mitochondrial protein Cell Biol Int. 31 (2007) 1331-1335
•Cannino G., Di Liegro C. and Rinaldi A.M.
Nuclear-mitochondrial interaction Mitochondrion 7 (2007) 359-366
•Morici G., Agnello M., Spagnolo F., Roccheri M.C., Di Liegro C., Rinaldi A.M.
Confocal microscopy study of the distribution, content and activity of mitochondria during Paracentrotus lividus development Journal of microscopy 228 (2007) 165-173
•Di Liegro C., Agnello M, Casano C, Roccheri M.C, Gianguzza F, Rinaldi A.M.
Hsp56 protein and mRNA distribution in normal and stressed P. lividus embryos.
Caryologia 61 (2008) 82-87
•Saladino, P., Proia, P., Schiera, G., Di Liegro, C.M., Lo Cicero, A., & Di Liegro, I.
Attività RNA legante della proteina csd-c2 ricombinante prodotta in escherichia coli
Rivista della facoltà di scienze motorie dell’Università degli studi di Palermo (2010) 117 124

No projects are available to students for the current accademic year.