Mark your calendar! On July 21st, Andrea Pauli from the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna, Austria, will visit the University of Regensburg. Her major research interest is the function of short open reading frames in zebrafish development.

Recent findings have indicated that eukaryotic translation is far more complex than anticipated with the frequent translation of short open reading frames that were previously overlooked. This ‘pervasive translation’ includes regions that are predicted to encode short, conserved proteins, while other translated regions lack signatures of protein conservation and might serve gene-regulatory functions. This raises two important questions: what is the role of the translated regions in the regulation of gene expression, and what are the functions of the newly discovered short proteins/petides? In her talk entitled ‘Found in translation: from genomics to novel gene functions in zebrafish’ (2p.m. in H53), Andrea will share exciting insights into the functions and regulatory principles of these newly discovered short translated open reading frames (ORFs) employing zebrafish embryogenesis as a model system.

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