RNA polyuridylation: regulation and consequences

虽然我们细胞中的DNA包含控制细胞行为的信息，但这些信息必须先被复制成RNA“信息”，然后才能被解码，例如制造蛋白质。从DNA模板复制的每条信息的信息内容都编码在一长串化学字母中，其中有四种类型：a、U、C和g。一段时间以来，人们已经知道，大多数RNA信息的末尾由一串“a”字母组成，这些字母不在DNA中编码，而是在信息复制后添加进去的。这条a尾的长度决定了信息在被破坏前的持续时间，以及它被解码以制造蛋白质的效率。我们最近发现，信息的尾部可能主要由“U”字母组成，这种情况发生在酵母菌和人类这样的远亲生物体中。该项目旨在研究这些u型尾的功能，并确定它们的合成是如何被调节的。我们的初步结果表明，从长远来看，干扰在rna上添加u -尾的药物可能会抑制癌细胞的生长。

While the DNA in our cells contains the information that controls their behaviour, this information has to be copied into RNA 'messages' before it can be decoded, for example to make proteins. The information content of each message, copied from the DNA template, is encoded in a long string of chemical letters, of which there are four types: A, U, C and G. For some time it has been known that the end of most RNA messages consists of a string of 'A' letters that are not encoded in the DNA, but added after the message has been copied. The length of this A-tail determines how long the message lasts before being destroyed, and how efficiently it is decoded to make protein. We have recently discovered that messages can instead have tails made mostly of 'U' letters, and that this is something that happens in organisms as distantly related as yeasts and humans. This project aims to investigate the function of these U-tails, and to determine how their synthesis is regulated. Our preliminary results suggest that, in the longer term, drugs that interfere with the addition of U-tails to RNAs might inhibit the growth of cancer cells.