LSI Seminar Series: Mitchell Guttman, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
RNA promotes the formation of spatial compartments throughout the nucleus
The nucleus is a highly organized arrangement of RNA, DNA and protein molecules that are compartmentalized within three-dimensional (3D) structures involved in shared functional and regulatory processes. Yet, what drives the molecular and spatial organization of these 3D compartments and what functional role(s) they play remains largely unknown.
Here, we will discuss a widespread role for non-coding RNAs in seeding compartments throughout the nucleus and describe a unique mechanism for how ncRNAs drive concentration-dependent transitions from diffuse localization to compartmentalized structures. We will describe how these ncRNA-mediated compartments control major classes of nuclear functions, including RNA processing, heterochromatin assembly, and gene regulation. Finally, we will discuss several emerging mechanistic paradigms for how compartments ensure quantitative regulation in the nucleus.
Speaker
Mitchell Guttman earned a masters degree in computational biology and bioinformatics from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He established his lab as an independent Fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard prior to joining the faculty at Caltech in June 2013. He is currently an Investigator at the Heritage Medical Research Institute and a Robertson Investigator of the New York Stem Cell Foundation. His research program aims to understand how noncoding RNAs shape dynamic 3D nuclear structure and how spatial organization regulates gene expression.