Towards the structure and function of a novel RNA gene

BIOL 169

Monica Rae Jung Lares, lares@chemistry.ucsc.edu1, Joseph Mendoza, jrmendoz@calpoly.edu1, and William Scott, wgscott@chemistry.ucsc.edu2. (1) Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, (2) Department of Chemistry and Center for the Molecular Biology of RNA, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Rerty is a RNA gene discovered during a scan of regions over 100 base pairs long and that are highly conserved in mammalian evolution but show extensive change in the human lineage since the common ancestor of human and chimpanzee. There is a segment of DNA at the 5' end of rerty that is 118 bases long and contains 17 substitutions in the human lineage, when only 0.27 substitutions are expected. The transcript of this region is what will be examined through biochemistry and x-ray crystallography. Rerty contains the most altered segment of DNA in the human genome and is also part of a brain development process that has changed during human evolution therefore it is expected that rerty played a significant role in human evolution, yet its function remains unknown.
 

Chemistry and Metabolism
4:30 PM-6:30 PM, Tuesday, 12 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Hall D, Poster

Division of Biological Chemistry

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006