Research seminars Co-evolution of transposable element activity and genomes

We work on several aspects of transposon-host interactions and their impact on the evolution and wiring of post-transcriptional RNA processing networks. We take a candidate-approach to study RNA binding proteins (RBPs) that are implicated in exon and intron selection for a mechanistic understanding of the exclusion of transposable elements (TEs) from the final mRNA. In addition, we take unbiased approaches and study RBP hubs, such as Nuclear Speckles, to investigate how strategies that suppress, delay or neutralize transcribed transposons/viruses shape our transcriptomes and through evolution, our genomes. In our most recent work, we employed single cell RNA-sequencing to survey the mutant phenotypes of 30 essential genomic pathways during mouse gastrulation, including over 450 individual embryo replicates. Within this integrated manifold, we identify diverse transcriptional subnetworks associated with heterochromatin induction and maintenance. Results of our most recent findings will be presented.