Biao Ding, Ph.D.

Professor

Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology

Ohio State University

Title: Viroids: Almost Everything You Want to Know about Noncoding RNAs

The study of noncoding RNAs is rapidly emerging at the forefront of biology, leading to new paradigms in the evolution of life, genome structure, gene regulation, cell-to-cell signaling, defense responses, medicine, etc. Viroids are circular and noncoding RNAs that infect plants.

They replicate in the nucleus or chloroplast and then traffic from cell to cell and from organ to organ to establish systemic infection. Viroids encode all functions within the RNA itself, including stability, intracellular and intercellular trafficking, replication, and pathogenesis. Seminal discoveries based on viroid models have foretold some major breakthroughs in biology, such as RNA-directed DNA methylation, special ribozymes, the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase activities of DNA-dependent RNA polymerases and the expansive repertoire of cellular circular RNAs. Recent studies on viroid systemic infection defined a new biological principle - the role of

three-dimensional RNA structural motifs in mediating RNA trafficking between specific cells.

In this seminar Dr. Biao Ding will discuss the utility of viroids to probe basic biological problems, drawing examples from various research groups including our own.

Venue: Room B321, Medical Science Building, THU

Time: June 28 (Friday), 2013; 16:30pm

Host: Prof. Yijun Qi