Dr Susan CrosthwaitePostgradDip, BSc, PhD
Lecturer
Overview
The set of instructions for building each organism resides in enormously long molecules of double-stranded DNA. The processes by which these programs of life are decoded and executed are only partially known. DNA instructs the synthesis of messenger RNA molecules, that use a molecular alphabet of four letters, A, C, G and U, to direct the assembly of a huge number of different proteins. Proteins have important structural, mechanical, enzymatic and signaling properties and are essential parts of every organism. The long-held view that a gene (a region of DNA determining a particular characteristic of an organism) expresses one messenger RNA transcript, which encodes a single protein has, in recent years, been replaced by a much more complex picture. We now know that a gene can express several alternative transcripts, including antisense transcripts from the opposite DNA strand. Many antisense transcripts have no protein-coding potential and a major goal of my laboratory is to discover the function of a subset of these transcripts. The circadian clock, an internal timekeeper that orchestrates the timing of cellular processes to occur at a favourable time of day, and asexual development in the model organism Neurospora crassa are also areas of interest under study.
Biology, Medicine and Health (BMH) Domains
Related information
Publications
Research output: Research - peer-review › Article
Research output: Research - peer-review › Article
Research output: Research - peer-review › Article
Student theses
UoM administered thesis: Master of Philosophy
UoM administered thesis: Master of Philosophy
UoM administered thesis: Phd