(405g) Invited Talk: Characterizing Biosensors of Nucleic Acid Oxidative Stress

In recent years, a wide variety of chemical modifications to RNA have been discovered. Given its relevance to pathogenesis and to the onset of several diseases, understanding how oxidative stress remodels basic cellular pathways and contributes to new cellular phenotypes is a broad scientific goal. A fundamental question in understanding oxidative stress response networks is how RNA-binding proteins contribute to these transcriptional responses, particularly as it relates to the processing of oxidized RNAs. A major hypothesis that we have been investigating in this work is that oxidized RNAs serve as signals that remodel metabolism to contribute to cell survival. Our hypothesis stems from our findings that a connection between cell energy-metabolic pathways and oxidative stress could be a conserve oxidative stress-management strategy across bacteria. In this talk, we will discuss our efforts on identifying RNA-binding proteins that have functional impact in the processing of oxidized RNAs and mechanisms by which they selectively recognize these modified RNAs and exert their functions.