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SUMMARY:A synthetic biology approach to harness the regulatory potential o
 f miRNAs in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii - Francisco J. Navarr
 o\, Baulcombe group
DTSTART:20170601T120000Z
DTEND:20170601T123000Z
UID:TALK71784@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:42122
DESCRIPTION:microRNAs (miRNAs)\, small RNA molecules of 20–24 nts\, have
  a number of features that make them ideal tools to regulate gene expressi
 on — small size\, flexible design\, target predictability and action at 
 a late stage of the gene expression pipeline. The regulatory potential of 
 miRNAs goes beyond gene repression\, as they can confer robustness to gene
  expression\, a feature which is desirable to implement in plant synthetic
  gene networks. In order to harness the regulatory potential of miRNAs\, a
  comprehensive understanding of the quantitative parameters and mode of ac
 tion of miRNAs is required\, which is\, however\, hindered by the complexi
 ty of natural systems. By using principles of synthetic biology\, we have 
 constructed a platform to characterize regulatory properties of miRNAs in 
 the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Using this system\, we observed 
 that the level of repression by a miRNA depends on its abundance and degre
 e of sequence complementarity to its target mRNA. We also found that seque
 nce complementarity between the miRNA and its target mRNA defined the mRNA
 ’s response curve to the miRNA\, and that the mode of action of a fully 
 complementary miRNA to its target was the result of a combined action of R
 NA slicing and RNA destabilization. We are now using this information to d
 esign further applications of miRNAs\, and studying their effect in regula
 tory loops. This work will be used as a proof-of-concept for the engineeri
 ng of miRNA-based gene circuits in higher plants.
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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