Weifeng Gu
University of California-Riverside, CA·Genetics
Every new messenger RNA in a cell starts life with a cluster of three phosphate groups at its front end. Cells normally cap or trim this end quickly, so that leftover triphosphate RNA in the cytoplasm signals a virus.
- Fields
Genetics
Biochemistry
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
RNA modification
RNA polyphosphatase
5' triphosphate
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Identify the messenger RNA and lincRNA targets of the RNA polyphosphatase PIR-2, an enzyme that trims phosphates from new RNA ends, in C. elegans.
- Test whether the PIR-2 polyphosphatase family regulates DNA replication, transcription and chromatin modification in germline cells and neurons.
- Determine how m5C, a methyl tag on piRNAs (small immune-sensor RNAs), affects their stability, target binding and processing.
- Test whether influenza A virus snatches caps from new or mature U1 and U2 snRNAs and whether infection impairs U1/U2-dependent RNA splicing.
More about the research
This project asks whether that RNA end, and other chemical tags on RNA in the nucleus, can be modified in different ways to change an RNA's fate. Such RNA modifications help control which genes are active and are linked to cancer, viral infection and brain diseases.
Why it matters
Viruses such as influenza exploit how cells mark and recognize the ends of RNA. Learning how cells adjust these RNA tags could yield new tools to control gene activity in research and could inform treatments for viral infection and other diseases tied to faulty gene regulation, including cancers and neurodegenerative disorders.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Wen Tang
Ohio State University, OH·Genetics
Determine how transcription of piRNA genes is regulated in C. elegans, using laboratory experiments combined with computational analysis.
Joel G Belasco
New York University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine the structural and phylogenetic diversity of 5′ caps on bacterial messenger RNA, chemical modifications only recently found outside eukaryotes, across bacterial species.
Craig Mello
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Genetics
Determine how germline cells distinguish 'licensed' genetic information that should be expressed from potentially dangerous 'unlicensed' information such as foreign or mobile sequences, using C. elegans small-RNA silencing pathways.
The school
University of California-Riverside: 21 labs on PI Pages, $232M a year on research, 328 research doctorates a year.
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