Characterization of RNA editing in in the healthy and failing human heart

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Jes-Niels Boeckel
• Subject Area: Cardiology, Angiology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512725688

Adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing (A-to-I) is a post-transcriptional modification process that increases the diversity of the transcriptome without altering the genome. The two enzymes adenosine deaminase acting on RNA (ADAR1) and 2 (ADAR2) specifically deaminate adenosines in RNA molecules, and the resulting nucleotide inosine is read and translated as guanosine, affecting both the sequence and secondary structure of RNA. RNA editing contributes to the regulation of gene expression, RNA stability, and RNA splicing. Alterations in RNA editing have been associated with various pathological processes in humans. The majority of edited RNA sites described to date are located in primate-specific regions in humans and are also tissue-specific. The proposed project will functionally investigate th erelevance of RNA editing in the human heart using RNA sequencing and cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-CMs).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants