Assessing the Selective Export of SSA4 mRNA

Publication Date

2026

Presentation Length

Poster/Gallery presentation

College

College of Sciences & Mathematics

Department

Biology, Department of

Student Level

Undergraduate

Faculty Mentor

Rebecca Adams, PhD

Presentation Type

Poster

Summary

One major step in DNA translation is when a single mRNA strand is exported from the nucleus of a cell into the cytoplasm to provide instructions for protein synthesis. If a cell is under stress, such as during heat shock, misfolding or aggregation of proteins can occur in the cytoplasm. The cell’s response to the stress could be to generate a protein using an enzyme built from an mRNA template to return disordered proteins to an ordered state. In this study, the activity of a specific gene sequence called “SSA4 mRNA” was studied because it is only generated and exported from the nucleus of yeast cells when temperatures are above 42°C, which is a unique property many other mRNAs do not have. Our question was to identify the locus of the nucleotides in this sequence that allow for this selective export. We used various methods to isolate, replicate and compare two recombined sequences of the SSA4 gene. While the plasmid has been successfully isolated and recombined using Cas9 and a guide RNA sequence, we have not been able to test which recombined sequence will be selectively exported. Future steps include troubleshooting the challenges in the amplification step of this experiment, plating of the amplified sequences, and comparison of the activity of each under normal and heat-shock conditions.

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