Speaker: Xinnian Dong, Duke University Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Biology

Title: Searching for messages carried by messenger RNAs

Abstract: Organisms have to adapt to environmental changes to survive in evolution. The last step in the central dogma of molecular biology involves translation of messenger RNAs into proteins, which are executors and catalysts of most biological processes. Therefore, translational regulation is a pivotal layer of regulation for reprogramming an organism’s proteome in response to stress. 

In my talk, I will present our work on how the regulatory elements we discovered in the 5’ leader sequences of mRNA control protein production in response to pathogen challenge and how our discoveries can be used to engineer disease resistance in plants.

Host: Michelle Guo, GDCB assistant professor