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Abstract Detail



Biotic and abiotic stress

Brand, Logan A. [1], Owttrim, George W. [1].

Some like it hot: Transcriptional regulation of a cyanobacterial RNA helicase.

Despite their ubiquity and high conservation, RNA helicases are poorly understood enzymes that perform roles in all aspects of RNA metabolism, thereby affecting processes vital to the ongoing survival of the cell. While the abiotic stress induction of the DEAD-box RNA helicase CrhR, at both the transcript and protein levels, has been well characterized in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, the mechanisms responsible for crhR expression are unknown. We investigated whether the regulation of crhR was controlled by transcription factor binding at the level of the gene, or by transcript attenuation promoted by RNA secondary structure in the nascent transcript, using a luminescent promoter probe vector. Initial results suggest that the promoter region of crhR is necessary and sufficient to drive expression of a luxAB reporter in response to low temperature. Our preliminary results also implicate the 5’ UTR and upstream region of the ORF of the crhR transcript as negative regulators of crhR expression in a post-transcriptional manner. We are currently using DNA pull-downs to identify regulatory proteins that bind to the promoter region, and investigating what specific regions within the promoter region and 5' end of the crhR transcript appear to regulate the transcriptional and pre-translational regulation of this gene.


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1 - University of Alberta, Biological Sciences, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada

Keywords:
none specified

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 7
Location: Salon 13/14/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Monday, July 27th, 2015
Time: 10:30 AM
Number: 7010
Abstract ID:440
Candidate for Awards:CSPB President's Award for Best Student Presentation


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