Determining spatial arrangement, stoichiometry, and substrate specificity of messenger RNA-binding proteins along the gene expression pathway.

我们研究计划的长期目标是研究不同生物体中必需rna -蛋白复合物的成熟途径。我们基因的表达在DNA被读取和复制成信使RNA (mRNA)，编码模板，以及在翻译过程中，当这个模板中的信息被转换成蛋白质时，都受到严格的调控。然而，转录和翻译并不是我们的遗传物质可以发生调节和改变的唯一步骤。mRNA本身与许多蛋白质结合，这些蛋白质进一步加工、折叠和检查分子，以确保其正确性，从而将遗传密码正确地传递到细胞中不同过程的蛋白质中。虽然人们一直认为所有mRNA分子都是由同一组蛋白质统一加工或成熟的，但我们实验室最近的数据表明，这些成熟步骤可能存在差异，这是由这些步骤中与不同mRNA相关的蛋白质的差异所定义的。本项目拟通过研究相关mRNA、导致变异的潜在机制及其后果，进一步探索mRNA成熟过程中的这些变异，因为这一过程中的任何失误都可能导致引入导致疾病的错误。总的来说，对遗传物质表达过程中任何额外调控步骤的更详细的基本知识将为我们提供对基因调控的更好的基本理解，以及为什么某些疾病可能发展和未来治疗的潜在新切入点。

The long-term objective of our research program is to study the maturation pathways of essential RNA-protein complexes in different organisms. The expression of our genes is tightly regulated both during the reading and copying of our DNA into messenger RNA (mRNA), the encoding template, and during translation, when the information in this template is converted into proteins. However, transcription and translation are not the only steps where regulation and alteration of our genetic material can occur. mRNA itself is bound by many proteins that further process, fold and inspect the molecule to ensure its correctness and hence the correct transmission of genetic code into proteins for diverse processes in the cell. While it has been assumed that all mRNA molecules are uniformly processed, or matured, by the same set of proteins, recent data from our lab suggests that there may be variation in these maturation steps that are defined by the variance in proteins associating with different mRNAs during these steps. This project proposes to further explore these suggested variances in mRNA maturation, by investigating the mRNAs involved, the underlying mechanisms that lead to variances, and their consequences, as any misstep in this process could lead to the introduction of errors resulting in disease. Overall, a more detailed basic knowledge of any additional regulatory steps during the expression of our genetic material will provide us with better fundamental understanding of gene regulation as well as why certain diseases may develop and potential new entry points for treatment in the future.