Marc Spingola
Marc
Spingola
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of New Mexico
Post-doctorate, University of California, Santa
Cruz
Phone 314-516-6749
Fax 314-516-6233
E-mail: spingola@umsl.edu
The processing of RNA is critical for all eukaryotic organisms. Precursor messenger RNAs usually contain intervening sequences, introns, that must be removed to produce the proper protein coding sequence. Failure to properly remove introns can result in a variety of diseases and cancers in humans. I am interested in the biochemical mechanisms that govern splicing - the removal of introns from pre-mRNAs - and how splicing is regulated by tissue- or cell-type specific factors. I use genetics and biochemistry to study how the meiosis-specific factor Mer1p activates splicing of specific introns during meiosis in baker's yeast.
Publications
Spingola M, Ares M Jr. 2000. A Yeast Intronic Splicing Enhancer and Nam8p are Required for Mer1p-Activated Splicing. Molecular Cell 6: 329-338.
Davis C A, Grate L, Spingola M, and Ares M Jr. 2000. Test of intron predictions reveals novel splice sites, alternatively spliced mRNAs and new introns in meiotically regulated genes of yeast. Nucleic Acids Res 28: 1700-1706.
Spingola M, Grate L, Haussler D, and Ares M Jr. 1998. Genome-wide bioinformatic and molecular analysis of introns in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. RNA 5: 221-234.
Hirao I, Spingola M, Peabody D, Ellington AD. 1998. The limits of specificity: an experimental analysis with RNA aptamers to MS2 coat protein variants. Mol Divers 4:75-89.
Spingola M, and Peabody DS. 1997. MS2 Coat Protein Mutants which Bind Qß RNA. Nucleic Acids Research 25: 2808-2815.
Lim F, Spingola M, and Peabody DS. 1996. The RNA-Binding Site of the Bacteriophage Qß. J. Biol. Chem. 271: 31839-31845.
Lim F, Spingola M, and Peabody DS. 1994. Altering the RNA Binding Specificity of a Translational Repressor. J. Biol Chem.269: 9006-9010.