Probing GNN Enrichment and Ribosome Function

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Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Michael Weir

Pete Hwang
Pete Hwang

 
Pete Hwang is a rising sophomore in the class of 2025. He is from Seoul, South Korea, and graduated from Yongsan International School of Seoul. He is planning on double majoring in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and Computer Science. In his free time, Pete enjoys exercising, cooking,  reading, playing the flute, and hanging out with friends. After Wesleyan, he plans on pursuing a field in computational biology.

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Abstract: The ribosome CAR interaction surface is hypothesized to provide a layer of translation regulation through hydrogen-bonding to the +1 mRNA codon that is next to enter the ribosome A site during translocation. In a previous study, we used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the codon sequence specificity of this CAR-mRNA interaction and discovered a strong preference for codons with the first two positions as guanine and cytosine (GCN), suggesting that there may be a sequence-dependent layer of translational regulation dependent on the CAR interaction surface. The strength of the hydrogen-bonding interaction with the +1 codon is also hypothesized to depend on stress-sensitive modification states of CAR and residues in the decoding center neighborhood. In this study, we used sequence bioinformatics to investigate the relationship between GNN codon enrichment tendencies and levels of protein synthesis in yeast cells under stressed conditions. A negative correlation was found between the two, suggesting the presence of translational regulation, possibly mediated by CAR.

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