RNA Structures as Processing Signals and Sensors

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

With this interdisciplinary approach we will identify the first "processosome" of an organism using molecular biology tools together with algorithmics and information theory. In the previous funding period we successfully determined the processing sites of Haloferax volcanii which resulted in the identification of 117 processing clusters. With this extensive data set we will determine the processosome and link the processing signals to specific ribonucleases in the next funding period. The established procedure can then be used to define processosomes in other organisms thereby unravelling a key layer of regulation and identifying signals for regulation. In addition, we want to show in the next funding period that variation in RNA conformation depending on environmental signals is a general regulation principle in prokaryotes. Using different experimental and computer science methods we will show that under different conditions different RNA structures exist and that a change in structure is used as signal for gene expression.