Roles of A-to-I editing in dsRNA recognition
The Bernecky group focuses on understanding the mechanisms of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of RNA. The goal of the group’s research is to understand how RNA protein complexes assemble and regulate cellular RNA metabolism using biochemical and structural biology techniques.
Within the SFB, the Bernecky group plans to address the biophysical consequences of adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing – a prevalent type of post-transcriptional modification in mammalian cells. An essential role of A-to-I editing is to prevent the erroneous recognition of endogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) by a cellular sensor of viral dsRNA, MDA5. Biochemical and structural analysis will be applied to understand how endogenous RNA structures are recognized by MDA5 (with Jantsch) and how A-I editing affects recognition by MDA5 (with Micura, Hofacker).