Syllabus

Short Course Description

RNA World 0421-04129-01? 2021/22 Syllabus
Teacher sessions
Origin and fate of the RNA World
RNA structure A
RNA structure B - Catalytic RNA
RNA-protein interaction principles
Genome-wide RNA technologies
Student sessions
RNA world hypotheses
RNA roles in translation
A self-splicing intron drives the evolution of the eukaryotic lineage
Small regulatory RNA
lncRNA, circular RNA
RNA-protein interactions genome wide and in vivo
Student lecture
Pick a paper from lists shown in the first teacher presentation.
Contact me to help chose/confirm your choice
Prepare a 25 min talk up to 8 slides & 1 page summary to be distributed ahead of the talk.
This part earns at most 51% of the course?s grade.
Written exam
An open exam, course materials allowed but no computers or phone.
There are 11 questions. Seven are based on the teacher?s presentations and 4 on research papers to be provided 4 weeks ahead of the exam. Choose five of the seven and two of the four.. Each answer earns at most 7 points altogether 49.?
Overview
Why dedicate a course just to RNA? My excuses are: (i) Once considered a mere go-between DNA and proteins in information transfer RNA gains nowadays much greater respect.The ever growing number of newly discovered RNA types turn out to figure prominently in various levels of gene regulation and contribute even hereditary traitsy; (ii) grasping the significance of these data calls for closer familiarity with RNA structure-function relations and the tools to explore them (iii) RNA?s ability to act as a genetic entity fit for rapid Darwinian evolution and as a catalyst promoting its own replication, suggest aa key role at life?s origin.
I have divided the course symbolically into past, present and future parts. The first deals with RNA;s role at the brink of life, the second the extant life where RNA shares tasks with DNA based genomes and translated proteins that catalyze most, albeit, not all life?sy processes. he two most important processes RNA catalyzes are protein synthesis and mRNA splicing .
RNA?s future represent the novel RNA-based technologies that allow simultaneous exploration of the structures and interactions of the entire transcriptome in vitro and in vivo.
The course first half is taught by me,, in the second the class teaches itself,, each student preparing a short talk on a research article covering one of the topics to be discussed. An example is shown below.
Student session 2 ? RNA roles in translation
1. Karik? et al.(2008). Incorporation of pseudouridine into mRNA yields superior nonimmunogenic vector with increased translational capacity and biological stability. Mol Ther. 11:1833-40.
2. Eyler D.E. et al., (2019). Pseudouridinylation of mRNA coding sequences alters translation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 116:23068-23074.
3. Wu et al., 2019, High-Resolution Ribosome Profiling Defines Discrete Ribosome Elongation States and Translational Regulation during Cellular Stress Molecular Cell 73, 959?970.
4. Jenner et al 2013. Structural basis for potent inhibitory activity of the antibiotic tigecycline during protein synthesis. PNAS 110:3812?16
5. Ploikanov et al. 2014. Negamycin interferes with decoding and translocation by simultaneous interaction with rRNA and tRNA
6. Marks et al. 2016. Context-specific inhibition of translation by ribosomal antibiotics targeting the peptidyl transferase center. PNAS 113:12150?55
7. Loveland,A.B., Demo,G., Grigorieff,N., and Korostelev,A.A. (2017). Ensemble cryo-EM elucidates the mechanism of translation fidelity. Nature 546, 113-117.