Seminar

Post-transcriptional gene regulation by UNR: From X-chromosome dosage compensation to cancer progression

Fátima Gebauer, PhD

X-chromosome dosage compensation is an essential process through which males and females equalize the levels of X-lined genes. In all model organisms analyzed to date, dosage compensation is achieved at the transcriptional level. However, at least in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, there is a strong post-transcriptional component that ensures that dosage compensation is activated in the appropriate sex. I will talk about the central role of the protein Upstream-of-N-Ras (UNR) in post-transcriptional control of dosage compensation, and will present the diversity of molecular mechanisms used by this RNA-binding protein to ensure sex-specific activation of this process. I will also present results that led us to infer a role for UNR in human cancer progression, as well as our advances on this front.