Role of post-translational modifications in the regulation of miRNA and RNAi pathways in mammalian cells

• Antragstellerin: Dr. Inga Loedige
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Zellbiologie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2007 bis 2009
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 57034047

The recent discovery of small regulatory RNAs has revolutionized our understanding of gene regulation and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007 to Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello. Best understood so far are the actions of microRNAs and small interfering RNAs that silence gene expression through translational repression and mRNA degradation. Although the in vivo functions of these small RNAs are just beginning to be understood it is already evident that they play important roles in many biological processes and microRNA misexpression has already been linked to human pathologies such as cancer. Along with the rapid advances in understanding the functions of small regulatory RNAs the protein complexes that mediate their biogenesis and effector functions have been characterized. Information about the regulation of these enzymes however is still sparse. The current proposal thus sets out to investigate the potential role of posttranslational modifications in the regulation of the mammalian RNA silencing pathways. Different methods will be used to determine if key enzymes of this pathway are modified by phosphorylation or ubiquitination, to elucidate which stimuli promote their modification and to reveal how this affects the protein properties

• DFG-Verfahren: Forschungsstipendien
• Internationaler Bezug: Schweiz
• Gastgeber: Professor Dr. Witold Filipowicz