Date: 21st October 2020
Time: 13:00
Title: In vivo role of RNA G-quadruplex in plants
Location: Remotely via Zoom
Hosts: Ari-Pekka Mähönen & Ykä Helariutta
Abstract: RNA G-quadruplex structures are formed by G-rich sequences in vitro, and their high stability suggests their presence and biological functions in vivo. However, the existance of RNA G-quadruplex in living cells still remain questionable. Recently, we showed the evidence of RNA G-quadruplex formation in vivo. We found an evolutionally conserved regulatory module consisting of “an RNA binding protein’’ named JULGI and “G-quadruplex forming sequence located on SUPPRESSOR of MAX1-Like 5 (SMXL5) mRNA” for vascular development in plants. JULGI binds G-quadruplex forming sequence of SMXL5 mRNA and stabilizes the G-quadruplex structure and subsequently, inhibiting translation of SMXL5. JULGI also involves in target RNA decay. Taken together with in vivo profiling of RNA G-quadruplex, our results strongly indicate that JULGI and SMXL5 mRNA module presents biological function of G-quadruplex structures in vivo. We propose that plants evolutionally select G-quadruplex structure as important regulatory elements to regulate protein accumulation in plant growth and development.
Research in Ildoo Hwang's group is mainly in signal transduction of plant growth and development.