Jonatha M. Gott, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Center for RNA Molecular Biology

Research:
Mechanistic studies of RNA Editing in Physarum mitochondria

Mitochondrial RNAs of Physarum polycephalum are subject to a range of editing events, including specific insertion and deletion of nucleotides and base changes. The goal of our research is the elucidation, at the molecular level, of the mechanisms of RNA editing in this unique model system We have found that the insertion of non-encoded nucleotides occurs co-transcriptionally. Our data suggest that the "extra" nucleotides are added by the mitochondrial RNA polymerase itself, but that other proteins are also required for this process. Ultimately, our work should shed light on the mechanisms of both editing and transcription elongation, leading to insights into the control of gene expression.

 

Selected Publications

Gott, J.M., Parimi, N. and Bundschuh, R. (2005)
Discovery of new genes and deletion editing in Physarum mitochondria enabled by a novel algorithm for finding edited mRNAs.
Nuc. Acids Res. 33, 5063-5072. /

Byrne, E.M. and Gott, J.M. (2004)
Unexpectly complex editing site patterns at dinucleotide insertion sites in Physarum mitochondria.
Mol.Cell Biol. 24, 7821-7828. /

Byrne, E.M., Stout, A. and Gott, J.M. (2002)
Editing site recognition and nucleotide insertion are separable processes in Physarum mitochondria.
EMBO J 21, 6154-6161.

Gott, J.M., editor (2004)
RNA Interference, Editing, and Modification: Methods and Protocols.
Humana Press, Totowa, NJ.

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