The slime mold Physarum polycephalum edits its own RNA (see figure).

1. Possible Sequence Motifs for RNA editing in slime moldsRalf A. Bundschuh (Ohio State University) DMR 0706002 The slime mold Physarum polycephalum edits its own RNA (see figure). It always does so at the same place in the sequence. How does it know where? We obtain sequences which are edited and sequences which are not edited and check if there are significant differences. We find that the sequence TTTA appears much more often about ten bases before editing sites than elsewhere. We also find more GGTA than expected directly after the editing site. This might be a signal used by the organism to determine where to edit. DNA ...ACTTTCACTGCCTGT-TTAGCAGGTGCTAT-ACTAT... ||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||| ||||| ...ACUUUCACUGCCUGUCUUAGCAGGUGCUAUCACUAU... RNA inserted Cs P. polycephalum edits its RNA by inserting Cs that are not in the DNA genome. editing site known sequence signals GGTA TTTA potential new sequence signals Surprise levels of nucleotide triplets around editing sites. Green and black are typical sequences; red areas indicate unusual and thus potentially functionally relevant sequences.

2. Statistical Physics Approaches to RNA editingRalf A. Bundschuh (Ohio State University), DMR 0706002 During the first year of this grant, the PI organized the annual RustBelt RNA meeting with 170 participants, of which 137 were trainees. This meeting featured 23 oral and 69 poster presentations most of which were given by trainees. Also, the PI strengthened the interdisciplinary workforce by co-directing the campus wide Interdisciplinary Biophysics Graduate Program at OSU. This program spans 7 colleges and gives its about 60 students the opportunity to work with one or several of over 90 faculty. Most directly, the PI trained the graduate student Wei Zhang in doing research on the project. Several undergraduate students in the laboratories of our collaborators Jonatha Gott (Case Western Reserve University) and Margaret Silliker (DePaul University) indirectly benefited by working on experimental verification of predictions resulting from this project.