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Abdelsayed Lab
Research Laboratory Specializing in Thermoregulatory RNA Elements
The Abdelsayed Lab is dedicated to advancing the understanding of thermoregulatory RNA elements.
Our primary focus is the discovery and characterization of RNA thermometers, RNA structures that play a crucial role in temperature regulation in biological systems.
The lab is located at California State University, Northridge (CSUN).
Interested in joining our lab or have a question for Dr. Michael Abdelsayed?
Email: Michael.abdelsayed@csun.edu
RNA thermometers are highly structured noncoding RNAs located in the 5′-untranslated regions (UTRs) of genes that regulate expression by undergoing conformational changes in response to temperature. Typically, gene expression is induced at higher temperatures as the RNA denatures and reveals the ribosome binding site for a downstream gene. We developed Robo-Therm, a pipeline that combines an adaptive and user-friendly in silico motif search with a well-established reporter system to identify and characterize RNA thermometers.
We have successfully implemented Robo-Therm to discover and characterize eight novel RNA thermometers (see research blog for me). All of these annotated RNA thermometers have been found in bacteria genomes, and two of them also occur in phage genomes which infect the bacterial host that also contains the same thermometer.
Ongoing research is focused on discovering more RNA thermometers, identifying new thermoregulatory RNA elements, and engineering synthetic RNA thermometers.
Publications
1: RNA thermometers are widespread upstream of ABC transporter genes in bacteria.
J Biol Chem. 2024 Aug;300(8):107547. doi:10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107547. Epub 2024 Jul 9. PMID: 38992441; PMCID: PMC11342760.
Tong AY, Tong EL, Hannani MA, Shaffer SN, Santiago D, Ferré-D'Amaré AR,
Passalacqua LFM, Abdelsayed MM.
2: Robo-Therm, a pipeline to RNA thermometer discovery and validation.
RNA. 2024 Jun17;30(7):760-769. doi: 10.1261/rna.079980.124. PMID: 38565243; PMCID:
PMC11182007.
Sharts DM, Almanza MT, Banks AV, Castellanos AM, Hernandez CGO, Lopez ML,
Rodriguez D, Tong AY, Segeberg MR, Passalacqua LFM, Abdelsayed MM.
3: Characterization of a FourU RNA Thermometer in the 5' Untranslated Region of
Autolysin Gene blyA in the Bacillus subtilis 168 Prophage SPβ.
Biochemistry. 2023 Oct 17;62(20):2902-2907. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.3c00368.
Epub 2023 Sep 12. PMID: 37699513; PMCID: PMC10586365.
Tong AY, Caudill EE, Jones AR, F M Passalacqua L, Abdelsayed MM.
4: Regulation of mRNA translation by aphotoriboswitch. Elife. 2020 Feb 13;9:e51737. doi: 10.7554/eLife.51737. PMID:32053109; PMCID: PMC7051177.
Rotstan KA, Abdelsayed MM, Passalacqua LF, Chizzolini F, Sudarshan K,
Chamberlin AR, Míšek J, Luptak A.
5: MultiplexAptamer Discovery through Apta-Seq and Its Application to ATP Aptamers Derivedfrom Human-Genomic SELEX. ACS Chem Biol. 2017 Aug 18;12(8):2149-2156. doi:10.1021/acschembio.7b00001. Epub 2017 Jul 11. PMID: 28661647; PMCID: PMC5775184.
Abdelsayed MM, Ho BT, Vu MMK, Polanco J, Spitale RC, Lupták A.