The Coupling of Alternative Splicing and Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay

Most human genes exhibit alternative splicing, but not all alternatively spliced transcripts produce functional proteins. Computational and experimental results indicate that a substantial fraction of alternative splicing events in humans result in mRNA isoforms that harbor a premature termination codon (PTC). These transcripts are predicted to be degraded by the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway. One explanation for the abundance of PTC-containing isoforms is that they represent splicing errors that are identified and degraded by the NMD pathway. Another potential explanation for this startling observation is that cells may link alternative splicing and NMD to regulate the abundance of mRNA transcripts. This mechanism, which we call "Regulated Unproductive Splicing and Translation" (RUST), has been experimentally shown to regulate expression of a wide variety of genes in many organisms from yeast to human. It is frequently employed for autoregulation of proteins that affect the splicing process itself. Thus, alternative splicing and NMD act together to play an important role in regulating gene expression

Improving the technical functionality of children's tracking watches

Children’s tracking watches are gaining popularity worldwide, but a one-size-fits-all approach to technical implementation is challenged by different social and cultural contexts, whilst abiding by national laws. We compare the social and regulatory environments of Australia and India – two countries with stark cultural differences – to consider how a flexible set of technical capabilities may be used to implement a system architecture which can be adapted to meet local requirements. The purpose of the research is to inform the company behind the Spacetalk children’s tracking watch, developed in Australia, as it expands its market internationally.Luke Jennings, Inderbir Singh, Matthew Sorell, Richard Matthews, Tobias Eggendorfer, Kristine Hovhannisya