报告题目 | RNA-Based Gene Expression and Regulation at Single-Molecule and Single-Cell Levels |
报告人 | Dr. FEI Jingyi |
报告人单位 | Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology The University of Chicago |
报告时间 | 2016-12-28 |
报告地点 | 环境资源楼939会议室 |
主办单位 | 合肥微尺度物质科学国家实验室、中国科学技术大学化学与材料科学学院 |
报告介绍 | Abstract:
The efficiency, accuracy, and regulation of gene expression are offundamental importance to living systems. Single-molecule and single-cell imaging approaches have provided powerful means for studying these aspects of gene expression, allowing us to characterize the in vitro and in vivo dynamics of the gene expression machineryat unprecedented precision and depth. Here, I will present applications of such imaging approaches to study two classes of RNA molecules that perform diverse catalytic and regulatory functions during gene expression. First, I will discuss the use of single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer to characterize the conformational dynamics of the ribosome as it translates anmRNA into the encoded protein product and the role that these conformational dynamics play in driving and regulating protein synthesis. Second, I will discuss the use of a new imaging and analysis platform based on super-resolution fluorescence microscopy,whichenabled the first in vivo determination of basepairing-mediated target search kinetics. Specifically, this platform was used to investigatethe target search kinetics of a stress-induced bacterial small RNA (sRNA) that induces the degradation of target mRNAs. The data reveal that thesRNA binds to a primary target mRNA in a reversible and dynamic fashion, and that formation of the sRNA-mRNA complexes is rate-limiting, dictating the overall efficiency of regulationin vivo. Examination of a secondary target indicated that differences in the target search kinetics contribute to setting the regulation priority among different target mRNAs. This super-resolution imaging and analysis approach provides a conceptual framework that can be generalized to other sRNA systems and other target search processes.
Biosketch: |