Michael Jantsch Lab

• Cellular and molecular mechanisms of RNA-editing
• Nuclear transport
• Chromosome structure

In eukaryotic cells post transcriptional RNA processing includes splicing, capping, polyadenylation, base modification and editing. Adenosine deamination by ADARs (adenosine deaminases that act on RNAs) occurs in virtually all metazoans and leads to the conversion of adenosines (A) to inosines (I) ind double-stranded or structured substrate RNAs. Inosines have the base pairing potential of guanosines (G). Thus, A to I exchanges are interpreted as A to G changes by the ribosome and lead to codon exchanges in coding RNAs. As a consequence ADARs can increase the genetic repertoire of an organisms by allowing the formation of novel proteins not encoded in the genome. Besides the editing of individual bases in certain coding regions of mRNAs, A to I conversions can be frequently found in 3’ untranslated regions, repetitive intronic sequences, and viral RNAs. While editing of viral RNAs is believed to be part of the cellular anti-viral defense mechanism, editing of non-coding regions in mRNAs may affect the stability, localization and translation of the edited RNAs. Most recently ADAR mediated editing has also been shown to occur in pre-miRNAs which might have a profound impact on RISC formation and target specificity.

We are insterested in the analysis of post transcriptional RNA-processing events, in particular RNA-editing by ADARs. Screens for novel editing targets and the interplay of RNA-editing with other RNA-processing events are the main research topics of our group.