The ribosome is an ancient macromolecular machine that translates the information coded in messenger RNA into proteins. Ribosomes are found in all living cells and, in addition to proteins, crucially depend on rRNA for their function. The genes encoding rRNAs are arranged in clusters called nucleolus organizing regions (NOR). Knowledge of the sequence and organization of rDNA genes within these clusters is essential for understanding rRNA gene regulation, their evolutionary origins, and the role of transcriptional variants in biology.
Until now, the sequencing of rDNA clusters has been inhibited by the repetitive nature of the DNA, which pose a problem for standard sequencing methods. Traditional sequencing methods chop DNA strands into smaller pieces, sequence them, and then reassemble the pieces in the proper order by matching their regions of overlap. But what if the individual pieces look too similar? More modern methods permit longer individual reads, which preserves context, but these approaches are more error-prone.
To tackle this problem, the researchers combined the contextuality of long reads and the precision of short read sequencing with a method to individually label rDNA repeats: “Each rDNA unit has minuscule variations”, explains senior Postdoc Jason Sims who is co-first author of the study together with Giovanni Sestini (now Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, IMBA). “We used these small differences to generate what we call a barcode for each unit. This way we could confidently assemble this highly repetitive rDNA region.”
With the sequence data in hand, the team observed that sequence variations exist not only in inter-genic regions, but also in the genes coding for rRNAs. These variants are integrated into mature ribosomes in a tissue-specific manner. “We learn in school that ribosomes are invariant machines – they just translate mRNA into proteins”, says group leader Peter Schlögelhofer, “however it was recently shown that they have different protein contents in certain tissues and developmental contexts. Our data now underlines the idea that they also contain different rRNAs, depending on tissue and developmental stage”. The biological significance of these genetic variants remains unclear, “but I would be surprised if there is none”, says Schlögelhofer. With their sequencing and bioinformatics pipeline, the scientists hope to have created a tool that can be used to analyze other repetitive DNA regions that make up a large part of the genome.
Publication in Nature Communications
Jason Sims, Giovanni Sestini, Christiane Elgert, Arndt von Haeseler & Peter Schlögelhofer: Sequencing of the Arabidopsis NOR2 reveals its distinct organization and tissue-specific rRNA ribosomal variants. Nature Communications Volume 12 (2021)
Why should life maintain chirality
Speaker: Yossi Paltiel
Institute: The Hebrew University
Host: Thomas Juffmann
Structural investigation of protein secretion by the Salmonella type III secretion system injectisome
Speaker: Sean Miletic
Institute: Marlovits Lab
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: BATTY Paul Daniel (Gerlich), JACOBS Jelle (Stark), BAUMANN Verena (Martens)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
The deeply conserved miR-1/V-ATPase regulatory axis is essential for muscle physiology
Speaker: Paula Gutiérrez Pérez
Institute: IMP - Cochella Lab
Lanthanide Chelating Tags for Pseudo-contactshift NMR Spectroscopy - Useful Long-range Tools for Structural Biology
Speaker: Daniel Häussinger
Institute: University of Basel
Host: Kristina Djinovic-Carugo
Following neuronal trajectories in developing brain
Speaker: Silvia Cappello
Institute: MPI of Psychiatry Munich
Host: Sofia Grade
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: RITSCHKA Birgit (Tanaka), LEIENDECKER Lukas (Obenauf), PISUPATI Rahul Bharadwaj (Nordborg)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Haven't got a glue?
Speaker: Nicolas Thomä
Institute: FMI Basel
Host: Jan-Michael Peters
Unraveling the structure of toxic protein aggregates in situ
Speaker: Rubén Fernández-Busnadiego
Institute: MPI of Biochemistry Department of Molecular Structural Biology
Host: Sebastian Falk
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: VOGEL Antonia (Clausen), INCARBONE Marco (Mittelsten Scheid), TELONI Federico (Gerlich)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Sex and gender bias in research: from the test tube to career path
Speaker: Flora Vincent and Aude Bernheim
Institute: Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and French Institute of Health and Medical Research, INSERM, France
Host: VBC Postdocs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Denis Jabaudon
Institute: Universite de Geneve
Host: SFB Neuro Stem Modulation
Title to be announced
Speaker: Eva Pereiro
Institute: ALBA synchrotron - Experiments Division
Host: Kristina Djinovic-Carugo
TraitMap: linking genes to quantitative cellular traits in haploid cells to study cell biology
Speaker: Thijn Brummelkamp
Institute: Netherlands Cancer Institute
Host: Johannes Zuber
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: AYALA MUNOZ Farja Isabel (Plaschka), HOLZMANN Viktoria (Rivron), STALTNER Moritz (Ameres)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Switching Genes on and off during development and differentiation
Speaker: Doug Higgs
Institute: MRC Weatherall Institute of Medicine
Host: Rushad Pavri
Title to be announced
Speaker: Sten Linarsson
Institute: Karolinska Institute
Host: SFB Neuro Stem Modulation
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: BASSAT Elad (Tanaka), RUANGROENGKULRITH Siwat (Tachibana), DOMBEY Rodolphe (Mari-Ordonez)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Navigating the cellular landscape with new imaging technologies
Speaker: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz
Institute: Janelia Farm
Host: Kristina Djinovic Carugo
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: FEDL Anna (Busslinger), TERIYAPIROM Isaree (Koo), LI Chong (Knoblich)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Coleen T Murphy
Institute: Princeton University
Host: SFB Neuro Stem Modulation
15th Microsymposium on Small RNAs
This year, the Microsymposium is a two-day international conference that brings together young scientists, junior and senior group leaders from all over the world to present and discuss their latest findings in the exciting field of small RNAs and other RNA biology related topics. The Microsymposium was founded in 2005 and has established itself as the major small RNA meeting in Europe. It is organized by the four research institutions GMI, IMBA, IMP, and Max Perutz Labs, as well as by the RNA community of the Vienna BioCenter.
The Microsymposium is a registration-free meeting for all its participants!
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: LIU Haijun (Nordborg), GEHRE Maja (Brennecke), NEMCKO Filip (Stark)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Visualising the Building Blocks of Life Inside of Cells
Speaker: Martin Beck
Institute: MPI of Biophysics
Host: Clemens Plaschka, Shotaro Otsuka
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: NAVALAYEU Tsimafei (Ameres), ZMAJKOVIC Jakub (Zuber), JONSSON Gustav (Penninger)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Josh Huang
Institute: Duke University School of Medicine
Host: SFB Neuro Stem Modulation
Title to be announced
Speaker: Richard Flavell
Institute: Yale University School of Medicine
Host: Meinrad Busslinger
Title to be announced
Speaker: Rahul Satija
Institute: New York Genome Center
Host: Andi Pauli
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: HINTERNDORFER Matthias (Zuber), KORESHOVA Alevtina (Burga), REUMANN Daniel (Knoblich)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: NOGALES MORAL Adrian (Köhler), NAJM Ramsey K. (Knoblich)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Grayson Camp
Institute: University of Basel
Host: SFB Neuro Stem Modulation
Regulation of Replication Timing and Chromosome Architecture
Speaker: David Gilbert
Institute: Florida State University
Host: Rushad Pavri
Monday Seminar (Internal)
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Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
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Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Hitoshi Kurumizaka
Institute: University of Tokyo
Host: Kikue Tachibana
Title to be announced
Speaker: Jan Boettcher
Institute: TU Munich
Host: Anna Obenauf
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Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Miguel Moreno Mateos
Institute: Andalusian Center of Developmental Biology
Host: SFB Neuro Stem Modulation
Title to be announced
Speaker: Gioacchino Natoli
Institute: Humanitas University
Host: Meinrad Busslinger
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Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
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Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Dana Peer
Institute: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Host: Anna Obenauf
Title to be announced
Speaker: Fanni Gergely
Institute: Cancer Research UK, Cambridge Institute
Host: Alex Dammermann
Monday Seminar (Internal)
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Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
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Institute: USC Leonard David School of Gerontology
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Title to be announced
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Institute: Duke University Medical Center
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Monday Seminar (Internal)
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Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
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Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
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Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: SESTINI Giovanni (Rivron), MORREALE Francesca (Clausen), PASAJILIC Djurdja (Martinez)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Taekjip Ha
Institute: Johns Hopkins University
Host: Clemens Plaschka
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: CORSI Flavia (Golobordko), BRUNNER Hanna (Haselbach), CRONIN Shona (Obenauf)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Holger Puchta
Institute: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Host: Ortrun Mittelsten Scheid
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: LEHMANN Christian (Knoblich), MURPHY Paul (Clausen), HISANAGA Tetsuya (Berger)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Madeline Lancaster
Institute: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Host: SFB Neuro Stem Modulation
Title to be announced
Speaker: Didier Stainier
Institute: MPI for Heart and Lung Research
Host: Elly Tanaka
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: SPICER Maximilian (Gerlich), GRÜNBACHER Sarah (Busslinger), BUENDIA Daniel (Mari-Ordonez)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Richard Youle
Institute: NIH
Host: Sascha Martens
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: VERTESY Abel (Knoblich), POLIKARPOVA Anastasia (Tanaka), LEESCH Katrin Friederike (Pauli)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Andrew Dillin
Institute: University of California, Berkeley
Host: Yasin Dagdas
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: PANAROTTO-PERICLES Melanie (Peters), LEE Ho-Soek (Belkhadir), CHAKRABORTY Oisorjo (Grade)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: LEE Ji-Hyun (Koo), PETROVIC Mina (Gerlich), BELACIC Katarina (Haselbach)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Nevan Krogan
Institute: UCSF - Gladstone Institute
Host: Manuela Baccarini
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: SHIRZADIAN YAZD Mehrta (Balzarotti), KOLESNIKOVA Sofia (Gerlich), BAUCELLS Julia Garcia (Dammermann)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: John Diffley
Institute: The Francis Crick Institute
Host: Rushad Pavri, Jan-Michael Peters
Title to be announced
Speaker: Azim Surani
Institute: Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge
Host: Andi Pauli
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: HOLSTEIN Felix (Obenauf), KHALDIEH Nina (Ameres), HOHMANN Ulrich (Brennecke/Plaschka)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Michael Lichten
Institute: NIH
Host: Peter Schlögelhofer
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: NAVA GARCIA Marintia Mayola (Köhler), TARDIVO Pietro (Tanaka), GEISMANN Maximilian (Balzarotti)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Magdalena Goetz
Institute: LMU Department of Physiological Genomics
Host: SFB Neuro Stem Modulation
Title to be announced
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Institute: EMBL
Host: Shamba Saha
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: SCHMUECKER Anna (Berger), VOGT Vivien (Zuber), HEIDARI KHOEI Heidar (Rivron)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Alejandro Sanchez Alvarado
Institute: Stowers Inst. for Medical Research
Host: Elly Tanaka
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: ELLIS Thomas (Nordborg), JELENIC Stela (Saha)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Patrick Cramer
Institute: MPI for Biophysical Chemistry
Host: Alexander Stark, Clemens Plaschka
Title to be announced
Speaker: Steve Jackson
Institute: Gurdon Research Institute
Host: Rushad Pavri
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: TREPTE Philipp (Knoblich), ABDRAKHMANOV Alibek (Dagdas), EHRMANN Julian (Clausen)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Adele Marston
Institute: Wellcome Centre Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh
Host: Daniel Gerlich, Joao Matos
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: ROSS James (Brennecke), ISBANER Sebastian (Balzarotti), STREUBEL Susanna (Dolan)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Kai Johnsson
Institute: MPI for Medical Research
Host: Daniel Gerlich
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: JUNKER Sabryna (Clausen), ZHAO Jierui (Dagdas), ISHIHARA Keisuke (Tanaka)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Xin Chen
Institute: Johns Hopkins University
Host: Fred Berger
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: VALLEBUENO Miguel (Swarts), SAJTOS Bettina (Zuber), NAGUMO WONG Sakurako (Knoblich)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: LUST Katharina (Tanaka), CLAVEL Marion (Dagdas), TIKANOVA Polina (Burga)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: CTORTECKA Claudia (Mendjan), MULVEY Hugh (Dolan), LORBEER Franziska (Stark)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: SCHELLHAAS Ulla (Plaschka), MEREITER Stefan (Penninger), RADHAKRISHNA PILLAI Balashankar (Saha)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: COLOZZA Gabriele (Koo), BLAHA Andreas (Pauli), PÜHRINGER Florian (Burga)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: JUNG Pauline (Obenauf), LICHT-MAYER Simon (Penninger), CAYGILL Samuel (Dolan)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: FALCON CHAVEZ Francisco Javier (Tanaka), KOK Jian Yi (Berger), VORLÄNDER Matthias (Plaschka)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: SODERHOLM Adrian (Versteeg), NEUDOLT Andrea (Obenauf), ANDREEV Veselin (Brennecke)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: HUMER Theresa (Pauli), CECI GINISTRELLI Lavinia (Mendjan), SANCHEZ DE MEDINA HERNANDEZ Victor (Dagdas)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: CORIC Aida (Tessmar), GOGOVA Rebeca (Clausen), LEE Heetak (Koo)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: TAVERNINI Katherina (Urban), CASEY Chloe (Dolan), DOLESCHALL Balint (Knoblich)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: PORTELL I DE MONTSERRAT Julia (Brennecke), ATTRILL Sarah (Dolan), CALDERON DOMINGUEZ Lesly (Busslinger)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: REY Ulises (Zimmer), BOURGUET Pierre (Berger), UIJTTEWAAL Esther (Elling)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: BECERRIL PEREZ Fernando (Tanaka), KETTEL Paulina (Karagöz), PUSHPA BOSE Greeshma (Urban)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: DEYETT Alison Ann (Mendjan), FIESLER Charlie (Zimmer), PICCHIANTI Lorenzo (Dagdas)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: VÖLKL Isabella (Bücker), TSAREV Aleksandr (Ameres), GABARRO SOLANAS Rut (Urban)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Joan Massague
Institute: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Host: Anna Obenauf
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: AULER Markus (Baccarini), MADHUSUDHANAN Jalaja (Zimmer), SCHENK Robyn (Busslinger)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: DA CUNHA E SILVA MARTINS COSTA Catarina (Knoblich), SHULKINA Alexandra (Versteeg), STOCKINGER Alexander (Raible)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Title to be announced
Speaker: Ulrich Hartl
Institute: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Host: Tim Clausen
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: LEE Joonsun (Elling), MILJKOVIC Frane (Köhler), HOFBAUER Lorena (Stark)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: FAHRENBERGER Martin (Von Haeseler), RAUSCHMEIER Rene (Busslinger), GUPTA Ankit (Golobordko)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: SCHMÖLLERL Johannes (Zuber), FAAS Victoria (Clausen), ANISIMOVA Aleksandra (Karagöz)
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Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: BRAGULAT TEIXIDOR Helena (Otsuka), SALEWSKIJ Kirill (Penninger), KAGAWA Harunobu (Rivron)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
Monday Seminar (Internal)
Speaker: CASEY Alexandra (Dolan), CERRON ALVAN Luis Miguel (Leeb), SIDHAYE Jaydeep (Knoblich)
Institute: Open only to IMP/IMBA/GMI/Max Perutz Labs
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