Functional characterization of TFAP2A-AS2 long non-coding RNA in human in vitro trophoblast model

• Grant number: 15/01397-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: April 15, 2015
• End date: August 14, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology
• Principal Investigator: Sergio Verjovski Almeida
• Grantee: Dinar Yunusov
• Supervisor: R. Michael Roberts
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Missouri, Columbia (UM), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/51152-7 - Functional characterization of long non-coding RNA transcribed from the antisense strand in the VEGFA gene locus, BP.DD

Abstract

In the past few years it has become appreciated that the human transcriptome contains many previously undetected - and thus uncharacterized -long non-coding RNAs that are only weakly expressed. The function of only a few representatives of this class has been studied in detail, while the remaining majority has received little attention. In a search for novel, conserved, regulatory antisense long intron-overlapping non-coding RNAs (lionRNAs) that overlap introns of protein-coding genes involved in cancer and embryonic development, we have identified DAPE1 antisense lionRNA. Previously, we found as part of the ongoing PhD project that DAPE1 (Development and Pathology Expressed 1) represents capped single-exon RNA, transcribed by RNA Polymerase II. Our analysis of public RNA-seq raw data revealed that DAPE1 is also expressed in in vitro-differentiated human trophoblast cells (hTBCs). The goal of the present project is to identify the mechanism of DAPE1 action in hTBCs, and understand the function of DAPE1 during hTBCs derivation from hESCs in vitro. Experiments will be carried out in the laboratory of Dr. R. Michael Roberts at the University of Missouri, USA. This will be the important last step in the PhD project, which should result in the complete functional characterization of this novel antisense lionRNA. (AU)