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Part 1: microRNA Biogenesis and Regulation: Narry Kim takes us through the steps in microRNA biogenesis and explains the importance of microRNAs in regulating protein-coding mRNAs.
Part 2: Tailing in the Regulation of microRNA and Beyond: Modifications, such as uridylation, of the 3’ tail of both microRNAs and mRNAs can regulate RNA function by targeting it for degradation.
Talk Overview:
Small RNAs (~20-30 nucleotides in length) are found in many eukaryotes and act to guard against unwanted RNA such as viruses, transposons and mRNAs. One family of small RNAs called microRNAs regulates protein-coding mRNAs by binding to the 3’UTR and repressing translation or inducing mRNA decay. microRNAs play a key role in animal development and diseases such as cancer. In her first talk, Dr. Narry Kim gives a step-by-step description of the microRNA biogenesis pathway and the points at which the pathway can be regulated.
In her second talk, Kim focuses on the regulation of microRNA function. A small percentage of microRNAs are modified with untemplated nucleotides, usually A or U, added to their 3’ end or “tail”. “Tailing” can modify the microRNA function and in some cases it can act as a molecular switch resulting in developmental and pathological transitions. Kim’s lab was interested in knowing if tailing occurs on other RNAs such as mRNA. They developed a novel method to sequence the 3’ tail region of mRNA allowing them to measure polyA tail length and detect 3’ terminal modifications. Interestingly, they found widespread uridylation of mRNAs and showed that 3’ polyU modification serves to mark mRNA for decay.
Speaker Biography:
Narry Kim is Director of the Institute for Basic Science and a Professor at Seoul National University. Her lab studies RNA-mediated gene regulation using stem cells, early embryos, and neuronal cells as model systems.
Kim received her BA and MS degrees in microbiology from Seoul National University and her DPhil in biochemistry from Oxford University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in Gideon Dreyfuss’ lab before returning to Seoul National University as a faculty member.
Kim is on the editorial board of a number of journals and has helped to organize many meetings on RNA biology. Her research and contributions to the life sciences community have been recognized with numerous awards including the Women in Science Award from L’Oreal-UNESCO (2008) and the Ho-Am Prize in medicine (2009). In 2014, Kim was elected to the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and the National Academy of Sciences USA.
Learn more about Dr. Kim’s research here: www.narrykim.or...