Work done in MBB professor Karla Neugebauer’s lab was highlighted in the Jan/Feb issue of The Scientist magazine. The feature article—entitled “Alternative Splicing Provides a Broad Menu of Proteins for Cells” and written by Gabrielle Gentile, Hannah Wiedner, Emma Hinkle, and Jimena Giudice—reviews today’s understanding of alternative splicing. The article traces alterative splicing throughout history, beginning with Beadle and Tatum’s ‘one gene, one enzyme’ hypothesis up to the modern era, where we now know that some genes can be alternatively spliced to produce thousands of differing transcripts. Karla Neugebauer’s lab was featured in the context of the work on RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) dynamics: using their recently developed SMIT technique, the lab demonstrated that rather than being spliced post-transcriptionally, introns are spliced co-transcriptionally. Along with their other techniques, like splicing factor ChIP help to elucidate how transcript architecture and splicing affects gene expression. You can read more about the Neugebauer Lab’s efforts on the website and see their publications here.
By Nakeirah Christie