Dynamics of plant telomerase RNA structure revealed by chemical probing
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In recent years, our research group has combined bioinformatics tools with experimental approaches to identify previously uncharacterized telomerase RNAs (TRs) across the eukaryotic phylogenetic tree. This work included the investigation of so-called lower plants, notably the model organism, the moss Physcomitrium patens. The TR of P. patens was examined using the experimental techniques SHAPE-Seq and DMS-Seq. A significant innovation was the single-molecule approach DaVinci. which revealed several dynamic conformational states of TR, both in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly, the presumed active (OPEN) conformation of TR corresponds to a minor fraction of TR under in vivo conditions. Therefore, structural polymorphism and dynamic TR transitions between CLOSED and OPEN conformations may be involved in telomerase activity regulation as a switch that functions independently of total TR transcript levels. |
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