Methods in Translation and RNA Decay

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Huan Raya Shu

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Dr. Huan (Raya) Shu is currently a postdoc in the Richter lab at the Program of Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA. Her research focuses on the dynamic molecular landscape of the Fragile X syndrome at mechanistic and cell type specific levels. She has led projects profiling the RNA metabolic rates, translation, RNA-protein interactions, and single cell transcriptomes in the FMRP knock out mouse brain. She collaborates broadly with computational biologists, neurobiologists, cell biologists and behavioral biologists. Dr. Shu received her PhD in Chromatin Biology from the Federal Institute of Technology Switzerland (ETH) Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Lars Hennig and Prof. Wilhelm Gruissem. Afterwards she took an interest in the biology in the brain and worked in the lab of Neuroepigenetics lead by Prof. Isabelle Mansuy. Now she continues her research in the brain at RNA and translation levels.

Collection Overview

After transcription and processing in the nucleus, eukaryotic mRNAs are exported to the cytoplasm. Next, they are transported and localized, stabilized and stored, translated, and eventually degraded. These steps form a complex, mutually connected web that requires tight regulations to achieve temporally and spatially proper gene expression.

Gene expression is influenced both by translation activity and mRNA stability. mRNA stability is influenced by ribosomal actions that translate them. Firstly, faulty mRNAs can be recognized by ribosomes, which triggers mRNA quality control pathways, leading to mRNA decay. More generally, the rate of ribosomes translating also dictates the stability of fully functional mRNAs through codon selection.

This method collection will present a variety of classic and recent techniques to analyze translation and mRNA stability. These methods can be based on biochemistry, molecular biology, and microscopy. Methods investigating how translation and mRNA stability impact other aspects of mRNA life cycle will be covered as well.