January 29 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Seminar held in person only.
Dr. Ariel Bazzini
Associate Investigator, Department of Molecular Integrative Physiology
KU Medical Center
“How RNA Shapes Life: Post-Transcriptional Gene Regulation in Vertebrate Development and Viral Infection”
Every cell in the body carries the same genetic blueprint, yet different cells behave in remarkably different ways. A major reason for this diversity lies not only in which genes are turned on (transcription), but in how messenger RNAs—the molecules that carry genetic instructions to make proteins—are controlled after they are produced (posttranscriptional regulation). In this talk, I will describe how our work uncovers new rules that govern when, where, and how efficiently RNAs are used inside living cells. We showed that the three-nucleotide ‘words’ read by the ribosome, codons, have a strong effect on the maternal mRNA stability and thus contain cis-regulatory information that extends far beyond the amino acids they encode. Therefore, the genetic code itself carries an extra layer of regulatory information: beyond specifying which amino acids make up a protein, the precise sequence of “letters” within a gene can also determine how long an RNA survives and how much protein it produces. In other words, the coding sequence is not just a protein blueprint, but also a powerful regulator of RNA stability. We also developed powerful new tools based on CRISPR technology that allow us to selectively destroy specific RNAs in living embryos, letting us directly test what individual RNAs do during early development. Using these approaches, we uncovered hidden RNA control programs that operate in precise locations and times within the embryo.
These RNA control programs are especially critical during the very first hours of life, when an embryo must transition from relying on molecules provided by the mother to activating its own genome. I will show how precisely timed and spatially restricted RNA regulation guides this transition and helps establish the body plan of the developing organism from its earliest stages.