Member Institutions:
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 Venkat
Gopalan
Departments of Biochemistry and Plant Biology
The Ohio State University
707 Biosciences Bldg.
484 W. 12th Ave.
Columbus, Ohio 43210
Phone (614) 292-1332
email gopalan.5@osu.edu
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Research Interests
Structure and mechanism of action of ribonuclease P, a catalytic ribonucleoprotein
(RNP) complex
The endoribonuclease RNase P is a ubiquitous RNP that is involved in the maturation
of tRNAs. In Escherichia coli, the RNase P holoenzyme consists of a catalytic
RNA subunit (M1 RNA, 377 nts) and a protein cofactor (C5 protein, 119 amino
acid residues). The long-term goal of our studies is to elucidate the mechanism
of assembly of this unique catalytic RNP complex and thereby understand how
an RNA-binding protein influences the structure and function of its RNA ligand.
Use of plant RNase P to inhibit gene expression
Recently, it has been demonstrated that endogenous, cellular RNase P can be
guided to specifically destroy a target mRNA in bacterial and human cells in
tissue culture. Our aim is to determine if plant RNase P could be utilized to
disrupt gene expression in plants and their pathogens. These studies will help
establish plant RNase P as a valuable functional genomics tool. Towards this
objective, we have recently made significant progress in partially purifying
and characterizing plant RNase P.
Lab Members
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- Roopa Biswas
- M L Stephen Raj
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Graduate Students
- Tim Eubank
- Milan Jovanovic
- Dileep Kumar Pulukkunat
- Hsin-Yue Tsai
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Undergraduate Students
- Mike Stiffler
Research Aide
- Steve Kawamoto
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Selected References
- Wu, C-W., Eder, P. S., Gopalan, V. and Behrman, E. J. (2001) Kinetics
of coupling reactions that generate monothiophosphate disulfides Implications
for modification of RNAs. Bioconjugate Chemistry (in press)
- Stephen Raj, M. L., Pulukkunat, D. K., Reckard, J. F., Thomas, G.
and Gopalan, V. 2001.
Cleavage of bipartite substrates
by rice and maize RNase P: Application to targeted degradation of mRNAs
in plants. Plant Physiology 125: 1187 1190.
- Biswas, R., Kuhne, H., Brudvig, G. and Gopalan, V. 2001.
Use of EPR spectroscopy to study macromolecular structure and function.
Science Progress 84: 45 -68.
- Altman, S., Gopalan, V. and Vioque, A. 2000.
Varieties of RNase P: A nomenclature
problem? RNA 6: 1689 - 1694.
- Roopa Biswas, David W. Ledman, Robert O. Fox, Sidney Altman, Venkat
Gopalan 2000.
Mapping RNA-Protein Interactions
in Ribonuclease P from Escherichia coli using Disulfide-linked EDTA-Fe.
Journal of Molecular Biology 296 (1):19-31
- Gopalan, V., Kuhne, H., Biswas, R., Li, H., Brudvig, G. W. and Altman,
S. 1999.
Mapping RNA-protein interactions
in ribonuclease P from Escherichia coli using electron paramagnetic
resonance spectroscopy.. Biochemistry 38: 1705-1714.
- Gopalan, V., Baxevanis, A., Landsman, D. and Altman, S. 1997.
Analysis of the functional
role of conserved residues in the protein subunit of ribonuclease P
from Escherichia coli. J. Mol. Biol. 267: 818-829
- Gopalan, V., Golbik, R., Schreiber, G., Fersht, A. and Altman, S.
1997.
Fluorescence properties of
a tryptophan residue in an aromatic core of the protein subunit of ribonuclease
P from Escherichia coli. J. Mol. Biol. 267:765 -
769
- Gopalan, V., Talbot, S.J., and Altman, S. 1994.
RNA-protein interactions in RNase P. RNA-Protein Interactions -
Frontiers in Molecular Biology, IRL Press, UK
Venkat Gopalan's Plant Biology Faculty
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Ohio State Plant Biology homepage
Ohio State University homepage
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