Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · 27d

Since their discovery, we have known lysosomes possess RNase activity; however, their endogenous substrates were not known. Surprisingly we found preferential targeting of specific RNAs for lysosomal degradation by autophagy and identified sequence motifs that mediate their lysosomal targeting (2/2)

3

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · 27d

Check out the latest work from Jordan Ray (@jordanray.bsky.social), a collaboration between our lab and David Sabatini’s lab. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/2)

Lysosomal RNA profiling reveals targeting of specific types of RNAs for degradation

Autophagy targets a wide variety of substrates for degradation within lysosomes. While lysosomes are known to possess RNase activity, the role of lysosomal RNA degradation in post-transcriptional gene...

www.biorxiv.org

1 4 11

Reposted by David Bartel's Lab

Eugene Valkov @eugenevalkov.bsky.social · Aug 13

Delighted to present our second paper of the year. This one explores the molecular mechanism of TTP, a key post-transcriptional regulator of AU-rich mRNAs. Work led and coordinated by @filippekovic.bsky.social, in collaboration with Perry Blackshear.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Multivalent interactions with CCR4–NOT and PABPC1 determine mRNA repression efficiency by tristetraprolin - Nature Communications

Deadenylation leads to mRNA decay, with PABPC1 protecting the poly(A) tail, while tristetraprolin and CCR4–NOT promote deadenylation. Here, the authors describe how these three proteins interact to re...

www.nature.com

3 9 44

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · Aug 2

We developed a neural network machine-learning model that predicts poly(A) tail-length changes in frog, mouse, and human oocytes, revealing new regulatory motifs and showing that variants disrupting tail lengthening are under negative selection, thus linking tail-length control to human fertility.

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · Aug 2

Check out the latest study from our lab, led by Coffee Xiang (@coffeebond007.bsky.social) www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/2)

PAL-AI reveals genetic determinants that control poly(A)-tail length during oocyte maturation, with relevance to human fertility - Nature Communications

Gene regulation in oocytes relies heavily on poly(A) tail-length changes. Here, the authors develop PAL-AI, a neural network model that predicts tail-length changes, identifies regulatory motifs, and ...

www.nature.com

1 14 32

Reposted by David Bartel's Lab

Iain Cheeseman @iaincheeseman.bsky.social · Jul 23

New preprint! We solve a mystery you didn't know existed. Mitotic cells lack new transcription but require ongoing translation. Interphase mRNA half life is only 2-4 hrs. So how do cells arrest in mitosis for hours without depleting their transcriptomes?

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Global inhibition of deadenylation stabilizes the transcriptome in mitotic cells

In the presence of cell division errors, mammalian cells can pause in mitosis for tens of hours with little to no transcription, while still requiring continued translation for viability. These unique...

www.biorxiv.org

6 43 140

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · Apr 5

Don’t miss this Q&A with Dr. Michelle Frank (@michelle-frank.bsky.social), an awesome postdoc in our lab!

Whitehead Institute @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social · Apr 3

Our latest Postdoc Q&A features Michelle Frank from the Bartel lab. Michelle is interested in how the brain balances the ability to learn new things with the need for maintaining stable connections. wi.mit.edu/news/meet-wh... #WhiteheadPostdocProfiles @bartellab.bsky.social

2 18

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · Mar 15

We report that some miRNAs are capable of high affinity binding to 3′-only sites (stretches of extensive perfect pairing to the 3′ region, without any pairing to the miRNA seed) and that these sites are functional, imparting post-transcriptional repression to site-containing reporter mRNAs. (2/2)

6

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · Mar 15

Check out the latest study from our lab, led by @mhall98.bsky.social :
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/2)

1 17 48

Reposted by David Bartel's Lab

Peter Wang @wyppeter.bsky.social · Jan 1

Happy 2025! Excited to finally share our published slicing structure of human AGO2, the catalytic structure for RNAi by siRNAs and miRNAs. This was an amazing collab effort between @voslab.org and @bartellab.bsky.social with @amohamed98.bsky.social

Seychelle Vos @voslab.org · Jan 1

Our collaborative AGO2 work with @bartellab.bsky.social is published! Abdallah and Peter used cryo-EM and biochemistry to determine the structure of AGO2 in a slicing competent conformation with a fully paired RNA. Read more about it here: tinyurl.com/AGO2-slicing

The structural basis for RNA slicing by human Argonaute2

Mohamed et al. report the cryoelectron microscopy structure of human AGO2 with fully paired guide RNA. Their analysis reveals the structural basis for the slicing activity that drives RNAi, showing that the slicing-competent conformation is achieved by domain movements and RNA-protein contacts distinct from those of conformational intermediates and prokaryotic homologs.

tinyurl.com

2 2 8

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · Jan 3

Check out our latest paper in collaboration with @voslab.org on the cryo-EM structure of slicing by human AGO2: tinyurl.com/AGO2-slicing

6 20

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · Dec 18

Thank you, Eugene! Glad to be here.

1

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · Dec 18

Bartel Lab bids a fond farewell to our incredible lab manager, Asia Stefano. Wishing you all the best on your new adventures in the Rocky Mountains, Asia—thank you for the amazing time we shared together!

2 2 20

David Bartel's Lab @bartellab.bsky.social · Dec 18

- – —

1 3