Gould, David William. A research summary 1) RNA binding proteins, 2) Selective constraint on copy number variation in human PIWI-interacting RNA loci. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T370801R
DescriptionThe overall aim of my research dealt with the understanding of regulatory elements in various systems (most important, in humans) through two research projects 1) a study of RNA Binding Proteins in S. cerevisiae and 2) a study of piRNA in humans. My first project involved the study of RNA Binding Proteins – thought to play a role in post-transcriptional translation in mammals. The algorithms miReduce and PhyloGibbs were used towards the prediction of binding sites for these proteins in S. cerevisiae. The putative binding sites found with the algorithms miReduce and PhyloGibbs warrant more extensive analysis, but further work needs to be done to determine the importance of secondary structure conservation inherent in many functional RNAs. The second project examined the nature of piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA). piRNA are small noncoding RNA that are found in animals thought to act as regulatory elements in the germ-line. This study in particular considers possible forces of selection on piRNA through the analysis of their copy number variation in humans. Three human populations were included in the data used: Europeans, Yorubans, and Chinese/Japanese. Results from our methods support a hypothesis of negative selection on piRNA; they were presented in a publication co-authored by Dr. Kevin Chen and myself [11].