Ateneo - UPO

Extracellular signals and membrane receptors. Signal transduction pathways. Transcriptional and translational regulation.
Introduction to Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and its applications.
Computaional analysis of NGS data.
Discussion about scientific papers about topics related to the course.

Lodish, Berk, Zipursky, Matsudaria, Baltimore e Darnell. Molecolar Cell Biology. Freeman & Co, New York.

Study of molecular mechanisms of signal transduction and of transcriptional and translational regulation. Introduction to bioinformatics approaches.

Molecular Biology I, Biochemistry, Genetics

Class lessons, discussion of scientific articles.

Learning control: discussion of the topics and questions during lectures

The exam consists of a written test with open-ended and multiple-choice questions. The questions will focus on 3 areas:

Signal transduction
Transcription and protein synthesis
NGS and its applications/bioinformatics methods.

The test consists of 12 multiple-choice questions and 5 open-ended questions. The correct answer guarantees 1 point, errors are not evaluated. The test is passed with 18. Scores equal to or greater than 31 guarantee 'laude'. During the test, the use of texts or notes is not allowed.

1) Extracellular signals and membrane receptors.
Hormones, growth factors and Neurotransmitters.
Membrane receptors. Trimeric G Protein-Coupled Receptor Family. Ion channels receptors. cytokines receptor. Serine threonine kinase receptors. Tyrosine kinase receptors.
2) Signal transduction.
Adenylate cyclase, cAMP, PKA, CREB.
Monomeric G-proteins
phosphoinositide cycle, PH and PX domains.
Tyrosine e serina/threonine phosporilation. SH2, PTB, 14-3-3 and FHA domains.
SH3, WW, PDZ ed EH domains.
Signal transduction pathways: membrane-nucleus, Ras and MAPK, PI£K and AKT, Jaks and Stats, TGFb/SMADs.
Wnt, Notch
Cross-talk.
3) Transcription regulation:
microRNAs and their regulation.
RNA interference.
4) Post-transcriptional regulation
mRNA modifications and transport.
Eukaryotic mRNA structure. Capping, polyadenliation
hnRNP proteins and nucleus-cytoplasm transport.
RNA editing.
5' and 3' UTRs and their role translation and mRNA stability regulation.
Trasferrin receptor.
Embryonal development and mRNA cellular localization.
5) translation and post-transcriptional regulation
Translation regulation.
Ferritina translation regulation
Intracellular localization of proteins.
6) Bioinformatics
Genomic databases
Next generation sequencing and applications for the study of gene expression and alternative splicing.
Computational methodologies for the study of microRNA and functional genomics

Knowledge of main pathways of signal transduction and of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression.
Knowledge of Next generation sequencing (NGS) techniques and applications. Knowledge of methodologies to analyze NGS data. It is not required to be able to analyze data.