Messenger RNA Processing

Chukwudi Ezeokonkwo
Predoctoral Student
B.A., Microbiology. University of California, San Diego, CA
A.A., Biology. Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA

Thesis Topic
Regulation of Polyadenylation by the Amino-terminus of Poly(A) Polymerase.

Current Research
Polyadenylation of mRNA is a fundamental, highly conserved molecular process common to eukaryotes. During this process, a tail of adenosines is added to the 3' end of pre-mRNAs during transcription. A large protein complex called the Cleavage-Polyadenylation Factor (CPF) mediates this event.

I am studying one component of this complex, Poly(A) Polymerase (Pap1), the protein that adds the Poly-A tail to the pre-mRNA during post-transcriptional modification. I am particularly interested in how the amino-terminus of this protein regulates polyadenylation. These studies will help us understand how polyadenylation is regulated in yeast.

Publications

1. Meinke G, Ezeokonkwo C, Balbo P, Stafford W, Moore C, Bohm A. Structure of yeast poly(A) polymerase in complex with a peptide from Fip1, an intrinsically disordered protein. Biochemistry. 2008 Jul 1; 47 (26):6859-69.
2. Asturias FJ, Ezeokonkwo C, Kornberg RD, Lorch Y. Electron microscopic analysis of the RSC chromatin remodeling complex. Methods in Enzymology. 2004; 376: 48-62.
3. Chung WH, Craighead JL, Chang WH, Ezeokonkwo C, Bareket-Samish A, Kornberg RD, Asturias FJ. RNA polymerase II/TFIIF structure and conserved organization of the initiation complex. Mol Cell. 2003 Oct; 12 (4):1003-13.