Research
The model organism in our current research
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All our current studies at Texas A&M University use the single-cell organism Trypanosoma brucei brucei. In general, protozoan species of Trypanosoma exhibit unique metabolic features, and some members pose a huge global burden on health and economic development. Powerful forward and reverse genetics methods, and whole-genome sequence information, facilitate studies of T. brucei brucei. While the model organism in our research does not cause disease in humans, an understanding of this fundamental biology is central to the development of approaches against species that impact human health.
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RNA biology in trypanosomes
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We study the “editosome”, a remarkable macromolecular assembly in RNA biology that is required for an RNA editing process during mitochondrial biogenesis. The editosome catalyzes massive uridine-specific insertions and deletions (indels) that remodel most of the mitochondrial transcriptome. This spectacular process converts primary mRNAs, originally "inactive pseudo-gene transcripts," into functional protein-coding sequences. Trypanosomes diverged from other eukaryotic lineages long ago; however, RNA editing, RNA interference, CRISPR, and mRNA splicing exhibit mechanistic analogies, including the use of non-coding guide RNAs (gRNAs). Thus, our studies are relevant to many important RNA-guided processes in nature. Our long-term goal is to dissect the basic mechanisms that regulate editosomes. At Texas A&M, our laboratory discovered a key factor termed the "REH2C ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex" in the mitochondria of trypanosomes. The REH2C RNP complex is a helicase molecular motor, comprising multiple proteins and RNA, which together regulate the editing process during the lifecycle stages of trypanosome development. We are currently studying how this helicase molecular motor specifically targets and regulates editing, as well as how it interacts and controls the assembly and function of other components in editosomes during development. Our studies employ a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing protein and RNA structure, genomics, bioinformatics, and proteomics.​​
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