Marino Resendiz, PhD, University of Colorado

"Exploring the Structural and Functional Impact of 8-oxo-7,8-Dihydroguanosine (8-oxoG) on RNA Using Aptamers as Models"

The relationship between oxidatively damaged RNA and disease is of wide interest. Mechanisms regarding how cells cope with oxidized RNA have been proposed, however, little is known in this area. In this work, 8-oxo-7,8-dihyguanosine (8-oxoG) was incorporated into oligonucleotides of RNA to explore its impact on structure and function. In addition ribonucleases of different specificities, common in RNA structure-probing, were used to understand structural aspects, e.g., RNase T1, RNase H, RNase A.