Speaker: Dr Valentina Migliori, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, UK

Steroid Receptor RNA co-Activator 1 RNA (Sra1) was originally identified as a co-activator for several nuclear receptors, serving as a scaffold to recruit proteins upon different stimuli, which in turn regulate gene transcription. Its secondary structure consists of a set of highly structured stem loops, which are post-transcriptionally modified by a family of enzymes called PseudoUridylate Synthases (PUSs). These enzymes isomerize uridine into pseudouridine (ψ), thereby altering their target’s structure, stability and ultimately function.