Decipher the Sub-nucleolar Organization of Nucleolar Exosome complexes

• Grant number: 24/19270-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology
• Mobility Program: SPRINT - Projetos de pesquisa - Mobilidade
• Principal Investigator: Carla Columbano de Oliveira
• Grantee: Carla Columbano de Oliveira
• Principal researcher abroad: Olivier Gadal
• Institution abroad: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/00901-1 - Posttranscriptional control of gene expression: pre-rRNA processing, mRNA degradation, splicing and snoRNP assembly in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, AP.TEM

Abstract

In eukaryotes, ribosome synthesis is a high-energy demanding process initiated with the synthesis by RNA polymerase I of ribosomal RNA precursors (pre-rRNAs) in the nucleolus. These pre-rRNAs undergo processing reactions, including nucleotide modifications and endo- and exonucleolytic cleavages to form the mature rRNAs, which, together with ribosomal proteins generate the ribosomal subunits. One of the exonucleases that participate in pre-rRNA processing is the exosome, a multisubunit complex responsible for the processing of the 7S pre-rRNA into mature 5.8S rRNA and for the degradation of the 5' ETS fragment.We recently discovered that yeast exosome was excluded from a sub-nucleolar compartment enriched in RNA polymerase I. To better understand the functional role of the exosome and of sub-nucleolar compartments in yeast, we propose to explore pre-rRNA processing and quality control within the nucleolar compartment, and to extend our studies to mammalian cells. (AU)