Projects

Spliceosomal snRNA Modification

The major spliceosomal snRNAs U1, U2, U4, U5, and U6 are present in eukaryotic cells as small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles (snRNPs) that are essential for the splicing of the major class of introns. Notably, these snRNAs share common features of post-transcriptional modification.

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Targeted RNA 2'-O-methylation for Regulating Telomerase Activity

Our recent research on small RNA-guided RNA modifications has produced the exciting realization that such modifications are widespread and heavily utilized in eukaryotic cells, leading to the site-specific introduction of modifications (e.g., 2'-O-methylation) into telomerase RNA (TLC1 in yeast).

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mRNA Pseudouridylation Effects on Coding

It has long been known that pseudouridine (Ψ) is an abundant post-transcriptionally modified nucleotide having chemical properties distinct from those of all other naturally occurring nucleotides. It is thus conceivable that Ψ, once introduced into mRNA codons, may uniquely contribute to codon-anticodon recognition, thereby impacting the final polypeptide product.

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