Strukturbestimmung eines Protein-RNA Komplexes mittels Kernspinresonanz und Kleinwinkelstreuung

• Applicant: Dr. Frank Gabel
• Subject Area: Biophysics
• Term: from 2005 to 2007
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 13943805

Human Tip associated protein (TAP) is a transport factor for messenger ribonucleic acids (mRNA), mediating their release from the cell nucleus into the cytoplasm after transcription. Upon infection by simian type D retroviruses, host TAP is complexed with a constitutive transport element (CTE) to allow release of viral mRNA into the host cytoplasm via formation of a TAP/CTE RNA complex. Whereas structures for the several regions of the TAP have been resolved by crystallographic studies, the structure of the CTE RNA part as well as the structural basis of their interaction is unknown. In this project, I intend to combine small angle scattering (SAS) with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in order to obtain lacking structural information, which is of major scientific interest for understanding virus proliferation in infected human cells. Besides its scientific and medical interest, the project will allow me to acquire both methodological and practical know-how concerning the NMR as well as the SAS techniques, which, when used in concert, are very promising to shed light on the structural basis of the TAP/CTE RNA and other multimeric complexes.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• Host: Professor Dr. Michael Sattler