MorphGrad · Morphogen-like properties of small RNA gradients: A new paradigm for the role of small RNAs in developmental biology

This fellowship will investigate the mechanisms by which small RNAs function as novel intercellular messengers that provide important developmental signals. By manipulating various small RNA gradient and target parameters, the proposed research seeks to understand how small RNA gradients are interpreted into sharp gene expression domains. The findings from the proposed experiments will provide important insight into the patterning properties of small RNA gradients, and their role in conferring robustness to developmental programs in both plants and animals. The approach taken is a multidisciplinary one that integrates mathematical modelling with qualitative experimental data, generated from a novel reporter system and state-of-the-art confocal imaging and image analysis. The outcome will be a new paradigm for how miRNAs function in development, which will provide important insight into the patterning properties of small RNA gradients.