Computational analyses of transcriptome regulation on RNA level

RNA水平转录组调控的计算分析

• 批准号: 341546-2012
• 负责人: Meyer, Irmtraud
• 金额: $ 1.52万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=572291
• 关键词: Computational; analyses; transcriptome; regulation; RNA

My Bioinformatics group investigates the transcriptome of organisms such as the human, and how it is regulated. The transcriptome corresponds to the set of genes that are activated in a given cell. It consists of so-called transcripts, linear RNA molecules that either encode a protein product or function as so-called RNA genes. Both classes of molecules, i.e. proteins and RNA genes, are key to determining the state of a cell. In contrast to proteins and their interactions, comparatively little is known about the transcriptome and how it is regulated. We already know of specific mechanisms of regulation that play key functional roles (e.g. so-called miRNA-mRNA interactions, Nobel prize in 2006) and that contribute to the complexity of organisms such as the human (so-called alternative-splicing), yet we currently lack both a comprehensive and a detailed view. To address this, my Bioinformatics group develops new computational methods that will allow us to investigate the role that RNA structural features (i.e. interactions of a transcript with itself) and RNA-protein interactions play in regulating the transcriptome. A special goal of our work is to capture features that are likely to be relevant in the living cell and to detect regulatory features in transcripts that encode proteins. Our research has the potential to yield computational prediction methods that will allow us (1) to detect yet unknown mechanisms of transcriptome regulation and (2) to significantly increase our current understanding of known regulatory processes such as RNA-editing, alternative splicing, translation initiation, transcript localization and degradation.

我的生物信息学小组研究生物的转录组，如人类，以及它是如何被调控的。转录组对应于在给定细胞中被激活的一组基因。它由所谓的转录本组成，即线性RNA分子，要么编码蛋白质产物，要么发挥所谓的RNA基因的功能。这两类分子，即蛋白质和RNA基因，都是决定细胞状态的关键。与蛋白质及其相互作用相比，人们对转录组及其调控方式知之甚少。 我们已经知道具体的调控机制，这些机制发挥着关键的功能作用(例如，2006年诺贝尔奖，所谓的miRNA-mRNA相互作用)，并导致诸如人类等生物体的复杂性(所谓的选择性剪接)，但我们目前缺乏全面和详细的观点。为了解决这个问题，我的生物信息学小组开发了新的计算方法，使我们能够调查RNA结构特征(即转录本与自身的相互作用)和RNA-蛋白质相互作用在调节转录组中所起的作用。我们工作的一个特殊目标是捕捉可能与活细胞相关的特征，并检测编码蛋白质的转录本中的调控特征。 我们的研究有可能产生计算预测方法，使我们能够(1)检测迄今未知的转录组调控机制，(2)显著提高我们目前对已知调控过程的理解，如RNA编辑、选择性剪接、翻译起始、转录本定位和降解。