RNA Trafficking, Transport and Processing

Keystone Symposia, Silverthorne CO

Investigators

Abstract

Recent exciting developments in the field of RNA transport have revealed that RNA processing, exit from the nucleus and identification in the cytoplasm are related processes, mediated by highly dynamic protein-RNA interactions. Proteins deposited on RNAs co-transcriptionally and through splicing appear to be critical to the subsequent fate of mRNA. Although their functions and to some extent even their identities are not clear, these proteins determine the properties of the mRNA with which they associate. They affect the nuclear export, stability and likely other cytoplasmic aspects of the life of an mRNA. The nuclear RNP remodeling events, how very large mRNP complexes get through the nuclear pore, how they associate with the cytoskeletal components required for their localization, how specificity of localization is determined and how translational repression of the unlocalized mRNA and local translational activation are achieved are now among the central questions. The goal of this meeting is to bring together scientists working at each level in the metabolism of mRNA, from it's co-transcriptional processing to its eventual translation and stability properties. It is at the interfaces between these different sub-disciplines that we hope to encourage interaction between scientists at the forefront and stimulate progress of this central and highly dynamic field. The goal of this meeting is to bring together scientists at the forefront of the RNA trafficking field, which is currently witnessing an explosion of developments with important medical ramifications. Indeed, the central role of post-transcriptional gene regulation effected at the RNA level is highlighted by the increasing number of pathologies whose basis is found to lie in some aspect of RNA control. Although many conferences include topics that deal with RNA, and one annually recurrent event, the RNA Society Meeting, deals with all aspects of RNA, this meeting is the only one we are aware of whose central focus is around RNA trafficking - how, once synthesized, RNA is dealt with by the cell to perform its functions optimally in the cytoplasm.