Speaker: Dr. Josep Vilardell
Centre de Regulació Genòmica

Host

Maribel Geli, IBMB-CSIC

Friday, 10 October 2008, 12:00h Aula Fèlix Serratosa

Abstract

Removal of introns during pre-mRNA splicing is a critical process in gene expression. Splicing takes place in a dynamic macromolecular complex, likely to be the largest in the cell, known as spliceosome. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is providing many insights into understanding how the spliceosome works. With a reduced set of introns and a simplified gene structure, yeast brings a reductionist approach to a complex biological problem, while evolutionary conservation of the mechanisms of pre-mRNA splicing gives relevance to findings in this model organism. We investigate two aspects of pre-mRNA splicing. First, how binding of factors near the 5´end of introns can affect splicing. Second, given the low informational content of the sequences of intronic 3' ends, we explore the mechanisms involved in their definition and their possible regulation. Our studies have unveiled a novel strategy for regulation based on the interference with conformational changes that occur during spliceosome assembly, which is in contrast to known instances of regulated splicing based on either the occlusion of splicing signals or the obstruction of interactions between spliceosomal components. In parallel, our genomic analyses indicate that the yeast spliceosome has some degree of flexibility in the selection of intronic 3' ends, as in metazoans, and work is in progress to determine if this flexibility can be regulated.

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