Advancing scientific knowledge of plant structures not only improves crop yields but also helps treat viruses, explains Yiliang Ding.
RNA has long been known as a crucial part of the central dogma of cellular biology, where DNA is transcribed into RNA and then translated into protein. RNA is a fundamentally important molecule throughout all organisms, including bacteria, plants, animals and viruses.
Like proteins, RNA can fold into different structures that impact biological processes in gene expression. Over the past 40 years, extensive efforts have been made to try to understand RNA structures. However, most studies were limited to test tubes where the conditions could not reflect the cellular environments.
In the past ten years, my group has developed a series of in vivo RNA structure profiling methods that allow us to explore the functions of RNA structure in gene regulations. These technological advances have revealed novel regulatory mechanisms across various biological processes, including RNA degradation, translation and mRNA maturation, a prerequisite for mRNA to be translated into protein.
We can leverage the power of RNA structures to engineer groundbreaking treatments for disease and cultivate more resilient crops, designing antiviral small molecules to treat multiple plant viruses at the same time, leading to a healthier and more secure future
At the John Innes Centre, we have been focusing on innovative methods for studying the structures of RNAs in living cells. Our research reveals the existence of three-dimensional structures, called RNA G-quadruplex structures, in eukaryotic organisms. Highlighting that these structures serve as a molecular marker to facilitate plant adaptation to the cold during evolution.
Our recent breakthrough, a single-molecule RNA structure profiling method, has revealed the functional importance of RNA structure in the regulation of long noncoding RNAs. Our technologies have also been used to explain the role of RNA structure in targeted RNA degradation, which has been applied in RNAbased anti-viral therapies for SARS-CoV-2 and Sugar Beet Virus.
Most recently, our work was recognised by the UK Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, signalling a welcome shift in global awareness towards the crucial contributions of plant science. This award will help us advance our research to take advantage of the large amount of genome-wide data generated in the lab for developing novel AI/ML approaches. Allowing us to enhance learning of the underlying rules of RNA and predict the functional RNA structure motifs. These AI/ML approaches will help us engineer plants by optimising the RNA structure to maximise growth and development.
With these discoveries, we can leverage the power of RNA structures to engineer groundbreaking treatments for disease and cultivate more resilient crops, designing antiviral small molecules to treat multiple plant viruses at the same time, leading to a healthier and more secure future.
- A group leader with tenure at the John Innes Centre, Dr Yiliang Ding was a UK Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists 2024 finalist
