The new tool, called Antibody Positioned RNA Amplification (APRA), was created in the lab of James Eberwine, a professor in the department of pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. It allows for a detailed analysis in intact cells -- in this case, neurons -- of mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid), which is essential for the transportation of genetic information from DNA to protein-producing areas.
APRA was created to study mRNA molecules involved with the Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP), which when missing leads to Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited mental retardation, especially in males. APRA and the mRNA-protein interactions it unveiled are detailed in the Feb. 6 issue of the journal Neuron.
Intense interest has focused on FMRP since Illinois researchers William T. Greenough and I.J. Weiler of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, co-authors on the Neuron paper, first reported in 1997 that the Fragile X protein is synthesized at synapses, the connections through which nerve cells communicate.
Using an approach in which FMRP was produced in bacteria, Greenough's postdoctoral associate Andrea Beckel-Mitchener, also a co-author, confirmed the binding of FMRP mRNA with the numerous molecules identified with APRA at Penn. Among them, she found the glucocorticoid receptor, a protein necessary for the regulation of circulating levels of adrenal corticosteroids following exposure to stress.
Weiler found lowered levels of the receptor protein in synaptic preparations. Beckel-Mitchener then carried the confirmation a step further. Looking in the h
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Contact: Jim Barlow
b-james3@uiuc.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
6-Feb-2003