Grant: Project Grant

All cells contain two main compartments, the inner nucleus, which contains all of our genetic material, and the cytoplasm where much of this material is converted into proteins. To get this information from the nucleus to cytoplasm requires intermediary molecules called RNAs. Until very recently, this 'messenger' role for RNAs was believed to be their only function. However, our analysis of several thousand different RNAs, using technologies developed in our lab, has shown that, all RNAs also possess information that sends them to many different locations both inside and outside of the cell, and that this determines where the proteins will be made and function. This is a critical new level of gene regulation, which we also now know is responsible for many different diseases. In addition, we have found that a new class of RNAs that have nothing to do with making proteins are also transported to many different locations, not only in the nucleus and cytoplasm, but also outside of the cell where they can be taken up by other cells. These 'non-coding' RNAs appear to function in ways that proteins cannot. The work proposed here also aims to catalog all of the distributions of this new class of RNA during much of development and in most tissues. The importance of these efforts, which have led so far to approximately 9000 RNA distribution profiles, archived on a publicly available database, is reflected by an average of 2000 queries per day by researchers around the world. The support requested here will be used to complete our analysis of the cellular and subcellular distributions of all RNAs encoded in the genome. This work is being conducted in the fruit fly, as it has proven to be the ideal model organism for the study of these highly conserved genes and processes.