Seminar with Prof. Maria Carmo-Fonseca
ICMM seminar
Prof. Maria Carmo-Fonseca
Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM)/University of Lisbon Medical School, Portugal
Promoter-proximal convergent antisense transcription
Wednesday October 30, at 10:15 -11:15
Faculty club, 16.6.16
Abstract:
From yeast to humans, promoters of protein-coding (pc) genes serve as origins for widespread antisense non-coding RNA transcription. Most of the identified promoter-associated antisense RNAs correspond to transcripts divergent from the pc gene. However, there is another class of convergently transcribed antisense RNAs that often initiate within the first intron of the pc gene and overlap the promoter region. We introduced the term "promoter-proximal convergent antisense transcripts" (PCATs) to specifically describe these RNAs. We sequenced Pol II-associated nascent transcripts in human cells and developed a Bayesian statistical model for the de novo identification of promoter-proximal RNAs. Our analysis revealed that approximately 40% of pc genes are associated with PCATs, and these genes exhibit higher transcriptional activity compared to those without PCATs. Notably, PCATs were prevalent among genes transitioning from a transcriptionally inactive to an active state. Based on these findings, we propose that PCATs play a role in transcriptional activation.
Bio:
Maria Carmo-Fonseca is Professor at the University of Lisbon Medical School. She is a founder of the Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM), a biomedical research institute affiliated with the University of Lisbon Medical School, where she currently serves as President. She was visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School (2011 to 2013). She is member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, the Portuguese Academy of Sciences, the Portuguese Academy of Medicine, and Academia Europaea, and she served as President of the RNA Society (2021-2022). She has been scientific editor for the Journal of Cell Science and the RNA journal. Carmo-Fonseca received several prestigious national science awards, and participates in multiple national and international advisory committees. Since her post-doc at EMBL Heidelberg, Carmo-Fonseca is interested in understanding the nuclear organization and dynamic regulation of pre-mRNA splicing. Her lab combines microscopy techniques and genome-wide methodologies to study the interplay between transcription and RNA processing.
https://imm.medicina.ulisboa.pt/pt-pt/investigation/laboratories/maria-carmo-fonseca-lab-2/#intro
Organizer: Simon Bekker-Jensen