During her PhD studies, Maria Gockert investigated the immediate function of the human RNA exosome and its associated nucleoplasmic adaptor complexes. Exosome mediated decay is central to numerous RNA processing and degradation events and therefore essential for cell homeostasis. Until now, functional analysis of these decay factors has been limited to long-term depletion experiments, that potentially fail to characterize direct protein function due to the emergence of secondary effects. To overcome this limitation, Maria has implemented a more rapid depletion method, the auxin inducible degron system. This system allowed the removal of the factors of interest within a short experimental time window and thereby enabled the delineation of RNA targeting events as well as the identification of indirect effects. The new research findings help further our understanding of the intricate dynamic mechanisms underlying nuclear RNA decay.

The PhD study was completed at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 at 13:15
Place: The defence will be held online. To receive a link to the event, please send an e-mail to Manfred Schmid (ms@mbg.au.dk).
Title of PhD thesis: Analysis of dynamic transcriptome changes upon rapid depletion of RNA turnover factors
Contact information: Maria Gockert, e-mail: gockert@mbg.au.dk, tel.: +45 31426777
Members of the assessment committee:
Associate Professor Steven West, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, United Kingdom
Associate Professor Sebastian Marquardt, Copenhagen Plant Science Center, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Professor Finn Skou Pedersen (chairman), Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Denmark
Main supervisor:
Professor Torben Heick Jensen, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Denmark
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
Due to the coronavirus situation, Aarhus University is physically closed. Therefore, the PhD thesis will not be available for reading at the offices of the PhD administration. Instead, interested parties may send an e-mail to gradschool.scitech@au.dk, and receive a digital copy of the PhD thesis. Please note, it may in certain cases be necessary to make an individual arrangement to read the PhD thesis.