RNA-mediated regulation

Plate-grown seedlings are one of our model tissues to study RNA-mediated regulation.

Regulatory networks cannot be fully described only by identifying the genes involved because they consist of many different kinds of molecules; metabolites, RNAs, proteins, and enzymes. All of these interact which each other to fine-tune the metabolism of an organism.

Currently, more and more regulatory RNAs of variable length are being added to the catalogue of regulatory network components. This includes small regulatory RNAs (e.g. miRNAs) and long regulatory RNAs (e.g. lncRNAs) that exert their action mainly or exclusively at the RNA level to regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level.

Both miRNAs and long regulatory RNAs play a role in the fine-tuning glucosinolate profiles and in linking the glucosinolate pathway to developmental processes. We study these regulatory RNAs in vivo and to identify their targets and to unravel this additional layer of post-transcriptional regulation of plant defenses.